


For The Longest Time

by GhostGrantaire



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Exes, Multi, Polyamory, Reunions, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2018-09-24 19:06:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9780932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostGrantaire/pseuds/GhostGrantaire
Summary: Five years after leaving for college, Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers come back to Hawkins.





	1. Prologue: Summer, 1985

**Author's Note:**

  * For [emmablowguns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmablowguns/gifts).



> I have so many works in process right now that I’ve decided to start dedicating them to people so I don't lose steam. They're generally dedicated to all of my mutuals, since you have all inspired me to keep writing BUT a special dedication goes to Emma, who is my twin in basically all respects and just one hell of a person and gave me so much inspiration to finish this.

Summer of 1985

_“It’s too hot to be out here. Can’t we go inside?” Nancy complained, not for the first time that night. The sun had set hours ago, but the teenagers were wide awake as they lounged in the Wheeler’s backyard. Nancy’s parents were asleep, so they kept their voices quiet, though the air seemed to absorb all the noise they made. Nancy was sweating, and the hair that had fallen out of her small ponytail was sticking to her forehead._

_“It’s like eighty-five degrees, Nance,” Steve pointed out, clearly teasing her, and she glared at him. Unlike her, Steve thrived in the heat. He was dripping wet, having dumped a bottle of water over his head ten minutes earlier, and his white shirt was almost completely see-through, but he didn’t mind. Nancy got the feeling he’d planned for that._

_“That’s hot,” Nancy whined in protest, and Steve stuck her tongue out at her._

_“We can go inside if you want, Nance,” Jonathan spoke up from where he was sitting a foot away. He was sweating too, but other than that he seemed completely unbothered by the temperature. He was staring up at the sky, clear and starry, looking mesmerized by the view. His calm somehow spread to her, and Nancy suddenly felt less overwhelmed by the heat._

_“No, it's alright.  We can stay here a bit longer, I guess,” she said, trying to sound casual. She settled back onto the ground, looking up at the sky through the trees, and she smiled as she felt Steve lay beside down her. He knew better than to embrace her when she was this hot, but he laced their pinky fingers together as a solid source of contact._

_“I’m gonna miss the stars in New York,” Jonathan decided suddenly, and Nancy couldn’t help but agree. Philadelphia wasn’t going to be as polluted as New York, but she doubted there would be this much light in the night sky._

_“Is that the only thing you’re gonna miss?” Steve piped up, and though he sounded happy-go-lucky, Nancy felt her heart clench painfully._

_They didn’t talk about college, though that was all they thought about these days. College had become the_ Unspoken Thing _looming in front of them, and It never really left them alone. Now it was August. Nancy had a box of winter clothes already packed away_ , _and a stack of textbooks on her desk, and still they stayed silently defiant about It, not daring to mention that in less than a month, they would all be separated. Nancy squeezed her finger around Steve’s, feeling a bit of tension disappear when he squeezed back._

_“That, and having you as such an easy target,” Jonathan deadpanned, but Nancy could just picture the small satisfied smile that was playing on his lips._

_By her side, Steve huffed, equal parts amused and offended. “Shut up Byers, you love having me around,” he argued, kicking dirt at the other boy._

_Jonathan glanced back, raising his eyebrows. “So you say,” he drawled sarcastically._

_“Nobody can spend this much time around me without falling in love with me. Not even you, Johnny.” Steve shot back the words confidently._

_From where she was, Nancy could see Jonathan grin, and she felt her heart rate increase. Jonathan smiled more now that they were friends, but most of the time it was subtle, quiet, like he wanted to smile but wasn’t sure if he was quite allowed to. This, though, was purely happy, relaxed, open, like he trusted them with something secretive, and Nancy would never get tired of it._

_“Stop your brooding and come over here,” Steve spoke up again, reaching for the boy like a lazy child reaches for a carton of milk. Jonathan, still grinning, crawled over obediently. As soon as he was close enough, Steve grabbed at his arm and pulled him to lay down beside them, Steve in the middle._

_The three of the watched the sky, although there wasn’t the slightest whisper of wind or movement to follow. There was something deeply sad about the silence after a_ second, _like they were all already hundreds of miles apart despite being pressed against each other._

_“I’m finally out in the clear and I’m free,” Steve suddenly spoke up, speaking the poetry in a quiet and meaningful tone. “I’ve got dreams I’m living for. I’m moving on where they’ll never find me, rolling_ on to _anywhere.”_

_Nancy didn’t say anything, letting the words seep into her as she mulled them over. There was a pause and then-_

_“Did you just quote Journey at us?” Jonathan asked, laughter in his voice, and Steve wasted no time in throwing a handful of dirt at him. Nancy rolled onto her side to watch them, and whatever heavy sadness that had settled over them evaporated._

_This was the way it was supposed to be. College couldn’t change that._


	2. Chapter 2

Spring 1990

Indiana was beautiful in the early spring, Nancy had to give it that much. The trees were bright, blossoming, and the sky was clearer than it ever was on the East Coast. However, despite its beauty, there was an uneasiness that always seemed to hang over it, the type that always lingered around small towns.

“God I hate this place,” Nancy muttered under her breath, glancing around at the shops lining the streets. Some were new and unfamiliar, but most hadn’t changed. Being back in Hawkins felt like going into a children’s library you hadn’t been inside for years-- it felt small, shrunken, like you’d suddenly outgrown it all. Jonathan shot her a look from the passenger’s seat.

“Nancy…” he started, clearly ready to start the conversation they’d had a million times.

“I know, I know,” she interrupted, shaking her head. “It’s not like I don’t want to see my parents. I do, I just… I really hate this town, alright?”

Jonathan hummed in response, and Nancy frowned, internally scolding herself. She felt bad for starting anything. She knew he was excited to be back, if only to see his mom, and she didn’t want to dim that excitement. It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited to see her own family. She was. Although they talked on the phone occasionally, she hadn’t seen her parents in almost a year.

But there was something undeniably wrong about being back here. She wasn’t sure when she’d started hating Hawkins, but the very thought of it now left a sour taste in her mouth.

Without warning, Nancy turned the steering wheel and pulled into the parking lot of a cafe.

“What are we doing?” Jonathan asked, sitting up straighter. Nancy glanced at him, already unbuckling her seatbelt.

“I need to pee. I just drank three cups of coffee.” Jonathan rolled his eyes, but there was a smile playing on his lips that showed he didn’t mind. Nancy knew he was thinking about how she could just use the bathroom at her parents’ house, but she was thankful he didn’t say anything. She leaned over, pressing a small kiss to his lips before climbing out of the car.

Honestly, she was putting off going home. She hadn’t seen her parents in ages, not since they’d met up to see Mike at college, but that had been eleven months ago. She knew what going home would be like, and she dreaded it. She couldn’t bear to listen to their questions about her life, their wistful tones as they reminded her of everything she’d missed while she was away. It was hard to go back, to see them again, but the more time she put it off, the harder it got.

She walked towards the coffee shop, the bell dinging above her head as she pushed inside. She pushed her sunglasses up to the top of her head, blinking as she adjusted to the lighting. It was a newer cafe that she’d only seen a couple of time over the past few years, and had never been inside. A few of the booths were filled with people eating a late lunch, but she couldn’t spot any employees. The walls were white, mostly bare except for one that was covered in newspaper clippings and home photos of people she recognized from around Hawkins. She glanced around for the bathroom when someone spoke up from the behind the counter.

“Hey, can I help-- Nancy?”

Nancy looked up so quickly she felt like her neck could have snapped. She knew that voice.

Steve Harrington stared back at her from a foot away, the restaurant’s logo printed on his T-shirt. He looked good-- older, more settled. His hair was shorter in the back than she remembered it being, but the front still flopped forward like it always did. She could barely remember the last time she’d seem him, let alone the last time they’d held a conversation consisting of more than a dismissive _hey, how are things?_

Steve grinned, speaking at last. “They said you were coming home.”

Nancy tensed slightly at the last word. She didn’t correct him, not wanting to come across as rude, but Hawkins hadn’t felt like home in a long time.

“Who’s they?” she asked, finding her voice at last. She could do this. She could have a normal conversation with her ex-boyfriend.

“Your parents,” he explained, leaning his elbows on the counter, the epitome of casual teenage charm, even after all these years. “How excited were they to see you?”

“Oh,” Nancy breathed out, feeling awkward. She hadn’t realized Steve Harrington still talked to her family, but she supposed it was a bit hard to avoid living in a small town. “I haven’t actually...seen them yet.”

Steve’s surprise showed on his face, but he didn’t comment on it. “How long are you in town for?”

“About two weeks. Until the 10th,” she explained, feeling foolish at the small talk.

Steve smiled and nodded, looking pleased by the news. “Awesome. It’s good to see you again.”

Nancy smiled back, although she got the feeling it looked pained and wrong. She hadn’t prepared herself for this, and everything just felt...off, like she was in the middle of a movie and they’d changed the script without warning. “You too.”

“Did you want anything?” Steve asked, standing up straight and gesturing around, slipping into his employee voice.

“Oh, right,” Nancy said, relieved at the change in subject. “You don’t happen to have coffee, do you?”

A voice in her head reminded her that she was only in there because she’d drank too much coffee, but she wasn’t thinking quite straight at the moment.

Steve tossed her a funny glance, most likely because she’d just asked if a cafe had coffee. “Just a drip coffee? We make good lattes,” he threw out in suggestion, already fetching a to-go cup.

“No thanks, just the coffee,” she replied politely. Steve shrugged, grabbing a pot of black coffee and filling it up a good ways before handing it to her.

“Cream and sugar are on that table over there.” He pointed behind her.

“Okay,” she replied, still a bit dazed from this whole interaction. She set the cup down, fishing through her pockets for change. “How much do I owe you?”

“It’s on the house,” Steve replied easily, leaning forward on his elbows again. Nancy opened her mouth to argue but he waved a hand. “Nance, that coffee costs about a dollar, including tax and tip. Just take it.”

“Thank you,” she replied delicately, appreciating the small gesture. She picked up the coffee again, not sure if she should leave or stay and chat more. After a second, she took a couple steps back. “Jonathan’s actually waiting in the car, I should…”

She trailed off.  Steve grinned again-- did he ever stop smiling?-- and glanced out the window as if trying to get a glimpse of her boyfriend. “Yeah? Tell Byers I say hi.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Nancy rushed, smiling as best she could, though it felt fake. “Bye.”

The farewell seemed insignificant, to say the least, but if Steve minded he didn’t say anything. He didn’t take his eyes off her as she left, even when she glanced back, and she walked back to the car in a daze.

She turned the car on immediately after getting in, replaying the interaction over and over in her head.

“Was there a line?” Jonathan’s voice made her jump, barely remembering he was there. She blinked at him in confusion, and he frowned back. “You were in there a while. Was there a line?”

“Oh. Yeah, there was a line,” Nancy answered, not sure where the lie came from or why she’d gone with it. She took a sip of the coffee, making a face when she realized she’d forgotten to put cream in it. She handed it to Jonathan. “Here, you have it.”

He took it, sending her an odd look, and Nancy remembered that she hadn’t actually planned on getting a coffee in the first place.

The rest of the drive to Nancy’s house was spent in silence, both of them lost in their own thoughts. As Nancy drove she relied purely on muscle-memory, stopping at red lights and stop signs on instinct, unable she couldn’t pull her mind away from Steve. She hadn’t thought about him in years, it felt like, and now he was going to be living not fifteen minutes away from her.

Nancy had barely pulled into the driveway of her childhood home before her mother had thrown open the front door. Nancy jumped out of the car and quickly ran to hug her mother. Suddenly, she couldn’t understand why she’d ever been scared to come home.Her father and Holly came out a second later, and all thoughts of Steve Harrington were pushed out of her mind.

\---

That evening, Nancy was curled on the couch beside Holly, who was telling her about some drama at her school. As she talked, Nancy subtly traded amused glances with her mother.

“Nancy, your boyfriend’s on the line,” Nancy’s father called from the hallway, and Nancy gave her sister an apologetic smile as she ran over to pick up the phone. After spending about an hour catching up with the Wheeler’s, Jonathan had driven over to his own house to see his mom and Hopper, just like they’d agreed on.

“Hey,” Jonathan greeted, and Nancy had to smile at the pure joy in his voice. Jonathan had really missed his family.

“Hey yourself,” she answered back. “How’s your mom?”

“She’s great, honestly,” Jonathan replied, and he sounded so relieved that Nancy wanted to hug him. He talked to him mom on the phone often (more than Nancy), but she knew there was an underlying fear in him that Joyce was stressed or unhappy and just didn’t want to upset him. “She seems really happy. Hopper too.”

“That’s terrific. Tell them I say hi, yeah?”

“Yeah, I will.” Jonathan paused. “Guess who else is here?”

Nancy made a questioning noise and waited expectantly.

“Steve Harrington.” Jonathan’s voice was light, but Nancy’s smile dropped.

“Oh?” She managed.

“Yeah. He’s out in the shed with Hopper right now. They’re fixing the roof,” Jonathan explained, and Nancy knew there was something behind his words. “He said he saw you today.”

There it was. Nancy let out a breath, immediately regretting not just telling him earlier. “Yeah, he, uh… gave me the coffee. I should’ve told you--”

“Nancy, you can’t avoid him forever,” Jonathan cut in, voice gentle but firm.

“I know that!” She snapped, her voice a harsh whisper to keep her family from listening in. She took a breath, speaking again in a calmer voice. “I know, I just… it’s so awkward, and…”

She faded off, and Jonathan sighed before taking over. “It’s Steve, Nance. You should try to start over. You owe him that.”

“He doesn’t want that.” Nancy said confidently. “He hates me, there’s no way he doesn’t.”

“He seemed excited to see you,” Jonathan pointed out, and Nancy really didn’t want to think about that. The idea that Steve had forgiven her for what happened all those years ago was somehow overwhelming. Maybe because she wasn’t even close to forgiving herself. She sighed and slumped against the wall.

“Can we please just… not talk about this?” she pleaded.

“Alright,” he responded after a long pause. Nancy could tell he didn’t want to let it go, but she knew he wanted to respect her. “How’s your family?”

Nancy let out a breath, grateful for the change in subject, and spent the remainder of the phone call talking about her parents and Holly before Jonathan had to leave to help his mom with dinner.

Nancy set the phone back on the hook and made her way back to the living room. Her mother quirked at eyebrows at her lethargic movements, but she just smiled as best she could, curling back onto the couch.

Deep down, she knew Jonathan was right when it came to Steve. He didn’t hate her. Steve wasn’t exactly a pro at hiding his emotions, and she’d always been good at reading him. If Steve hated her, she would’ve known from the moment they’d laid eyes on each other that afternoon.

It was her who couldn’t move on. She was the one who couldn’t think of him without remembering everything she’d messed up.

It hadn’t been sudden, their breakup. It didn’t come out of the blue or blindside either of them. Nancy got the feeling that that would have been easier, and that the slow burn of it all had made it more painful.

She’d kept her promise to keep in touch for months. They talked on the phone every week-- Wednesday evening, eight o’clock sharp. Steve would call her, she’d pick up on the third ring exactly (it was a game to them-- Steve knew she’d be waiting by the phone, but she refused to come across that eager). She and Jonathan had their own weekly call, as did the two boys, but those were always less scheduled than the couple's. If, by some circumstance, she missed a chance to talk to Steve, Jonathan would fill her in on all of the details within a couple days. They didn’t need to talk about important stuff. Instead, they talked about homework, awkward experiences, and weird people they’d spot on the bus. They talked about anything and everything, just like they’d grown to the last year of high school, and Nancy knew that she'd been right when she'd said that things would stay the same.

When it was time for winter break, the three of them had reunited, and for a moment, it had felt like nothing had changed. They hadn’t spent all their time together-- each of them dedicating themselves to their families. Nancy spent almost all of her time catching up with Mike, Jonathan with Will, and Steve trying to navigate the strained relationship that his parents had drifted into after his departure. But despite all of that, they’d been together, and it’d been good.  And then, when they'd gone back to school, it hadn't been.

Nancy knew it was her fault. She hadn’t done it on purpose, so maybe _fault_ was the wrong word to use, but she was the reason behind it all. Being in college was strange, but a welcome strange. She was surrounded by people who were on the same level as her, who could hold conversations about complicated equations and theories without any difficulty. Her classes were difficult, and when she wasn’t holed up in the library working on homework, she’d found people to relax with and forget about the world. She was in a new place, a city that didn’t hold the slightest resemblance to Hawkins, Indiana, and as time went on, she forgot.

That was the simple, cruel truth of it all. She hadn’t pushed Steve away. She hadn’t cut ties out of spite. She’d just forgotten about him. She knew it, Jonathan knew it, and Steve knew it.

It had started with a missed phone call in early February, which turned into two missed calls, and then three. She’d been out with friends, the Wednesday night phone call completely skipping her mind. The week after, she’d unplugged her phone so she wouldn’t get distracted on her assignment. The week after that, she’d put off dinner and had run to the convenience store to grab a bag of chips.

She’d realized she’d missed them quickly enough, sometimes as soon as an hour later, but with each one, her guilt started to grow into something nasty.

She’d talked with Jonathan one day, after the missed calls began. They’d had some lapses in communication as well, but it wasn’t as blatant as with Steve.

_“Steve’s worried about you, I think,” Jonathan had said, sounding a bit hesitant, like he wasn’t sure what he was walking into. “He kept asking if you were okay.”_

_“What did you say?” Nancy had asked in return._

_“I told him you were busy. But Nancy, maybe you should call him. Sooner rather than later. He misses you.”_

Nancy still remembered how much that hurt to hear. She’d never felt so much guilt in her life than in that moment. She’d assured Jonathan that she would call Steve the next day, no question about it, and the subject had switched to something else.

She never called Steve.

The following Wednesday, Steve had called again, eight o’clock sharp, punctual as ever, while Nancy had been sitting at her desk working. She didn’t know why she didn’t pick up. Maybe because she’d just been too afraid to apologize, too scared to tell Steve that she’d only thought about him a few times that month. It was just hurt him, and she couldn’t be responsible for that. So she sat still and watched the phone until it stopped ringing before getting back to her biology homework.

Nancy didn’t go home for spring break that year, and instead her family drove up to meet her and they spent the week in Philadelphia. When summer came, she went back to Hawkins, but Steve traveled to Florida to see his grandparents. Sometime between then and the Harringtons' divorce a year later, Steve-and-Nancy stopped, and Steve and Nancy officially began.  There was no breakup call, no affairs, no fights.  But Nancy stopped picking up, and Steve stopped calling, and that was that.

Hawkins became nothing more than a bad dream, a place you describe with a scrunched face and a dismissive hand gesture. And when Steve dropped out of college and moved back to the town, that was how Nancy described him too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the first real chapter! I hope you like it, and please leave me a comment, it'd mean the world to me :) Also as the fic progresses you'll learn more about Jonathan and Nancy's relationship, as well as what Steve's been up to in the last five years.
> 
> Side note: Unfortunately, since this takes place in the spring, there's not going to be much Mike or Will, since they're both off at university, but you will see a lot of Holly Wheeler. She's about ten years old in this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, this chapter is three months late. Sorry about that you guys.

Thursday morning sent Nancy straight back to her high school days. She’d forgotten how damn _loud_ it was, living in a house full of people yelling to each other and going about their own business. Though Mike was no longer running around the kitchen and stealing food off her plate, ten-year-old Holly wasn’t much quieter, constantly trying to get her father’s attention to crack a joke or tell a long-winded story with too many names to clearly follow.

It had quieted down once Holly and Ted left for school and work respectively, and Nancy and Karen were left alone. They’d enjoyed the afternoon peacefully, running errands and grabbing lunch together, focusing on catching up with each other.

It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, spending time with her mother again after so much time apart. There were tons of questions and comments that Nancy, who admittedly hadn’t been the most optimistic towards the afternoon, was quick to respond defensively to. The conversation got derailed into an argument more than once, but she hadn't expected much different. She tried her best to stay positive and change the subject when it needed changing, and she could recognize her mother trying to do the same. She supposed it could have been worse. 

After returning home, they had about an hour of silence before Holly’s school let out, and the house was drowned in noise again.

“Mom, come _on_ , we’re gonna be late!” Holly called in annoyance, stomping her foot. She’d forgotten her softball clothes at home so Karen had taken her back after school to change. She was now dressed and standing in the doorway, looking like she was about ten seconds away from just walking back to school.

“Holly, calm down, we’re not going to be late!” Karen exclaimed, running around with keys in hand. She spotted Nancy lounging on the couch and suddenly lit up. “Listen, why don’t you drive Holly to softball? It’ll give you two a chance to catch up.”

Nancy blinked as her mother pushed the keys into her hand. “Alright, I guess. Come on, Holly.”

“Finally!” Holly groaned in relief, grabbing her bag and bolting out the door. Nancy threw her mother a surprised look, though she mostly felt amused. She knew that Holly had started softball the year before, but she hadn’t expected her to be so invested in it.

Despite Holly’s anxiety about the time, they still arrived at the baseball field behind the elementary school ten minutes before practice officially began.

As soon as they pulled into the parking lot, Holly had jumped out of the car and started to run over to the pitch, forgetting her baseball hat in the rush. Nancy called her name, but she didn’t hear, so Nancy obediently turned off the car and grabbed the hat.

“Geez, Holly, slow down,” Nancy said after she jogged to meet her sister. Holly took the cap with a sheepish smile. Nancy smiled back, happy that her sister was having so much fun with what she was doing. They shared a moment, and then Holly’s eyes drifted past Nancy,and she lit up like a lightbulb.

“Stevie!” Holly suddenly exclaimed, running past Nancy, who had frozen where she stood.

 _Oh god…_ Nancy turned around, blinking in surprise as she saw her baby sister high-fiving a grinning Steve Harrington. He was wearing a T-shirt, dark wash jeans, and a scuffed up pair of Nike Cortez, identical to the ones he’d worn in high school. She frowned at them, unsure if their familiarity made her more or less uncomfortable. It was like they were a blinking reminder of how much she'd changed and how much had stayed in the same in Hawkins. 

“Hey Hols!” Steve looked up, eyebrows raising when he saw Nancy, before he grinned again, swinging the baseball bat he was holding to rest on his shoulder. “Hiya Nance.”

“Hi Steve.” She couldn’t help but wonder if this was why her mother insisted she drive Holly. She didn’t know why, but it seemed like the sort of thing her mother would do. “You, um, coach softball?”

“Not really. The head coach, Joan, is on maternity leave for now. I’m just stepping in,” he said with a shrug.

“He’s the best!” Holly piped up from behind Steve, and he grinned at her. Holly took that as her cue to run over to the rest of her team, but Steve hung back. They stood in front of each other awkwardly, the space between them filled with the sounds of the wind and the girls.

“I didn’t realize you started playing again,” Nancy commented after a moment, needing something to say.

It had been a big deal when Steve quit the baseball team his junior year. He’d been one of their star players for three years, but when he’d gone to try out in the spring, nobody could understand why he was suddenly so anxious around the bat. Nobody except Nancy and Jonathan, who’d both personally seen him use one to take out an eight-foot monster that was trying to kill them. That changed things, a bit.

Steve glanced at the bat he was holding. “Oh, hardly. I started back up a bit in college, just on the side. It’s way more fun coaching, though.”

Nancy nodded. She was happy for him. It’d taken ages for the nightmares to stop for both Nancy and Jonathan, and it had been some of the worst times in her life. Sometimes she’d still wake up drenched in sweat with a terrible feeling in her stomach, and though she’d never remember the dreams, she could put the pieces together. At least she still had Jonathan, someone who understood first had what it had been like.

That thought made Nancy slightly nauseous to consider, and she changed the subject quickly.

“So do you have anymore mystery jobs I should know about? I heard you also help Hopper out with yard work.” She tried to keep it casual and light-hearted, but she’d never been very good at small talk, so she wasn’t sure if she was successful.

Steve chuckled. “That’s not a job. Although Joyce _does_ pay me back with food, so I can’t complain. Technically the cafe’s my only real job.”

Nancy blinked in surprise. She'd always known that Steve was a good guy, and that he’d matured even more over the years, but she didn’t realize he’d be into… _volunteering_.

“Anyway, I should get practice started. Those girls are vicious when it comes to softball,” Steve said, cracking a grin, and Nancy returned it weakly. “I’ll see you around, yeah?”

Nancy stared after him as he jogged over to the girls and quieted them down. After a second, she walked back to the car slowly with a frown, and drove home lost in her thoughts.

Her mother bombarded her as soon as she walked through the door. “How’d it go?”

Nancy stopped to give her mom a look as she set down her purse and keys. “Did you know he’d be there?”

Karen blinked, looking confused before brightening. “Oh, Steve! I completely forgot!”

Karen may have been the best liar out of the family, but that wasn’t saying much. Nancy knew her mother’s mannerisms too well to not notice the lie.

“Great,” Nancy deadpanned. She wasn’t actually annoyed with her mother- she knew she had the best intentions-- she just couldn’t understand why she would trick Nancy into seeing her ex-boyfriend.

“He looks good, doesn’t he?” Her mother asked, completely rhetorically, and Nancy had to let out a small laugh at her mother’s lack of subtlety.

“I suppose,” Nancy answered back, deciding to play along as she hung up her sweater and settled onto the couch in the living room. It wasn’t like she could disagree with that even if she’d wanted too-- saying “Steve Harrington looks good” had become as much of an indisputable fact as “water is wet.” That, at least, hadn’t seemed to change.

“It’s a wonder he’s still single.” Nancy paused at that. She knew what her mother was doing, but that didn’t stop her from being surprised. Most people in Hawkins got married in their early twenties, so it was surprising that Steve didn’t even have a girlfriend. “I think he’s lonely.”

“I doubt it,” Nancy responded. She reached for a magazine and flipped through it absently, trying to appear as though she wasn’t invested in the conversation. Her mind, however, couldn’t stop fixating on that idea. She felt a wave of guilt wash over her for the second time that day.

“I’m sure he’s happy you and Jonathan are back.”

Nancy tossed the magazine back, looking at her mother intently. “We’re not _back_ , Mom, we’re just visiting.”

Karen held up her hands and pursed her lips, the universal sign of innocence. Nancy frowned.

“What are you trying to do here? I thought you liked Jonathan,” Nancy said, incredibly upset at the prospect of her mother trying to reunite her with Steve. 

Karen sighed, looking completely genuine as she responded.

“I love Jonathan, you know that. I’m so happy that you’re with him,” she said, and that was true. When Karen had found out about the couple, she hadn’t stopped talking about it for a week, according to her father. “I was serious before, though. I think Steve’s lonely. It’s not easy being in Hawkins by yourself.”

Nancy fidgeted, feeling uncomfortable at the topic. “He’s not by himself. I’m sure he has friends he’s close with.”

Her mother shrugged delicately. “Not like the three of you used to be.”

Nancy didn’t say anything to that. She didn’t know what she could say. _No one was as close as the three of us were_ , Nancy thought to herself before quickly banishing it from her mind.

“Look, all I’m saying is it wouldn’t hurt to spend some time with him. You and Jonathan both,” her mother spoke up again with raised eyebrows. Even though she was 23 years old, something about that look and tone of voice still felt impossible to ignore.

Luckily the phone rang a minute later, only for it to be Mike calling from college, and the Wheeler women were instantly distracted.

\---

Friday afternoon found Nancy and her mother washing dishes after lunch and bobbing their head to music on the radio.

“So Nancy, me and your father aren’t going to be back until late tonight, alright?” Karen said absently as she focused on stacking the washed dishes beside Nancy..

Nancy stopped as she was drying off a plate. “What?”

“We’re going to dinner tonight with Jim and Joyce,” her mother continued like it was common knowledge. “We do it every month. And Holly’s going to be at a sleepover.”

“Doesn’t she have a game tomorrow?” Nancy exclaimed, surprised at the news

“Her friend Lucy’s grandfather just passed away, so I gave her special permission this time,” Karen explained, unfazed.

“Well what am I supposed to do?” Nancy asked, a bit shocked at her mother’s dismissiveness.

“I’m sure you and Jonathan will figure something out.” Nancy sighed at her mother, slightly hurt by how little she seemed to care, but went back to drying the dishes. “You know, you could always give Steve a call.”

They hadn’t talked about Steve since the previous afternoon, but Nancy had known they wouldn’t stay away from the topic for long.

“Mom…” she started, not sure what to say.

“I’m just saying, he’s a good cook. I’m sure he’d be happy to have you both over for dinner.”

Nancy set down the plate, exasperated, but before she could complain her mother was talking again.

“Nancy, can’t you just think about it?” Karen asked, fixing her with a stern look. “I don’t pretend to know what happened between all of you during college, but I remember how happy you were before all of that. I just think you’re being a bit dramatic about this whole thing. It’s _Steve_.”

She set down the last dish in the dishwasher and raised her eyebrows just before Holly called her name, and she left for the basement, leaving her daughter staring after her. Nancy tried not to think about how similar her mother’s words had been to her boyfriend’s, instead turning back to the sink to drain the dirty water.

Despite her hesitations, Nancy forced herself to bring the idea up to Jonathan when she called him that day. She still felt bad about holding back about running into Steve, and she hated keeping things from him.

Besides, it’s not like he’d actually consider calling Steve. Jonathan hated inviting himself to things, never wanting to feel in the way.

So naturally, Jonathan jumped at the idea, leaving Nancy speechless on the phone. He’d gone on about what a great idea that was, and how if he could call Steve if she wanted him to.

He sounded so excited to see Steve again, and Nancy knew there was no way she could back out at that point and explain that she was actually way too terrified to follow through with it. So instead she assured her boyfriend that she could call Steve and he didn’t need to.

After they hung up, Nancy sat in silence for five minutes, trying to gather her nerves. Finally, she pushed down her anxiety and dialed the number her mother had scrawled out on a piece of paper.

“Hello?” Steve’s cheerful voice rang out from across the phone line.

“Yeah, uh, Steve, it’s Nancy,” she greeted unsurely.

“Oh hey Nance!” She wondered if she should be bothered by how easily the nickname came to him. “Your mom said you’d call.”

Nancy paused, veering from the carefully constructed conversation she’d planned out. “She did?”

“Yeah. She said you and Jon didn’t have dinner plans?”

“Did she.” Nancy deadpanned back, feeling rather annoyed at her mother, though she supposed it was easier than having to ask him herself.

“Does eight o’clock work?” Steve asked, skipping past her comment. 

“What?” Nancy asked, caught off guard.

“Eight, for dinner. Is that too late for you guys?”

“Oh, no that’s-- that’s fine,” Nancy answered back, a bit flustered. She’d expected him to turn her down, or at least act awkward about the whole ordeal, but he seemed so… casual. For some reason his calm only added to her stress. “Are you sure you don’t mind? It’s kind of last minute—“

“What, no!” Steve cut in. “I definitely don’t mind.”

There was a sincerity in his voice that made Nancy shiver, feeling uncomfortable. “Oh, well, good. Thanks, I mean.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Nance, it’s not like I’m doing you a favor.” Steve dismissed, and Nancy thought back to her mother’s voice. I’m sure he’s happy you and Jonathan are back.

“Right, no, of course not, I just meant—“ She closed her eyes. She didn’t know how to fix this, hell she didn’t even know why it needed fixing, so instead she changed the subject. “Well, I’ll see you at eight then.”

“Sounds good. Oh wait, the address,” Steve suddenly remembered, and Nancy frowned.

“Steve, I remember where you live,” she replied in confusion, and there was a pause.

“I don’t still live in my parent’s house, Nancy. I’m 24,” Steve explained, a bit awkwardly, and Nancy felt instant embarrassment wash over her.

“Oh. Right,” she responded, not saying anything as Steve told her the address and directions to his house.

\---

They arrived at Steve’s place at 8:03 PM. The sun had set about an hour ago, but the night was still young, birds and crickets chirping around them.

Steve’s house was a back unit facing the forest. Nancy’s mother had mentioned that he was renting it from the family who owned the main house, but Nancy hadn’t expected it to be so nice. Jonathan knocked on the door, and they waited patiently until the front door was opening and Steve was grinning out them.

“Hey guys, come on in.” He didn’t waste time in opening the door, and Nancy and Jonathan both slipped inside.

“Hey Steve,” Jonathan spoke up, smiling widely. “Thanks for having us over.”

Steve grinned back, and they embraced tightly. Nancy looked away, the sight pulling at something in her chest that she didn’t want to think about. She suddenly felt terrible about the way she’d tried to avoid this dinner. She’d made it about her, completely brushing aside the fact that Steve had been Jonathan’s best friend by the time they’d left Hawkins. It made sense they’d want to see each other again.

They broke apart and Steve turned towards her, smiling sincerely. She suddenly found herself immensely grateful for the dish that her mother had shoved into her arms before leaving, and she held it out to him. “We brought salad! I think my mom had to return the bowl anyways?”

Steve blinked down at the bowl before smiling and taking it from her. “Sweet, yeah. Thanks Nance.”

He sat the bowl down in the kitchen and removed the cling wrap from the top, leaving Jonathan and Nancy to look around. Jonathan sent Nancy a curious glance once they were alone, and Nancy gave him a reassuring smile. She could set aside her nerves for one evening, if it meant Jonathan could spend a night with his old friend.

“This is a cool place, Steve,” Jonathan spoke up as they looked around. “How long have you lived here?”

“About eighteen months?” Steve called back, not sounding completely sure. “The Wilkes—the people who own the front unit—travel constantly ever since their daughter left for college, so I basically get the yard to myself most of the time. Pretty sweet deal honestly.”

The two of them continued talking while Nancy wandered around the small living room, taking in the décor and furniture. It was clean, but in the way that Nancy guessed he had cleaned up last minute. There were jackets and shoes lying about, though kept out of the way, and

She hadn’t expected so many photos. A lot of them were random shots of nature, a few of which she recognized as Jonathan’s work from NYU. Steve must have kept them, and she thought about how pleased Jonathan would be to see that. There was one of Steve and his mother, though there was no sign of Mr. Harrington on the mantle. There was a group shot of him and a group of friends that must have been from him time at IU, another one at a coast with people Nancy faintly recognized as his cousins. The rest were just as random—Steve with a dog, Steve on the top of a mountain, Steve in a suit next to—

“Oh my god,” she blurted out. “Jonathan!”

Jonathan was by her side in a moment, frowning at the wall before a look of surprise washed over his face. “Holy shit,” he muttered. “Are those our prom pictures?”

“You still have these?” Nancy asked wildly, looking over her shoulder at Steve, who grinned back at them unashamed from where he was grabbing the beers.

“Of course I do. It was a good night. Besides, I looked good in that suit,” he said playfully, walking up behind them to look at the photos.

There were two of them side by side in the frame. The larger picture was one of the three of them, Jonathan smiling shyly in the middle with Nancy and Steve grinning excitedly on either side, like they couldn’t believe they’d finally roped him into a picture. The other picture was just of Nancy and Steve, arms linked together as they looked at something just over the frame. Her face was one of pure joy, while Steve’s mouth was open in mock offense, and Nancy remembered the snarky comment Jonathan had muttered before taking that photo.

Nancy remembered that night vividly, even though she hadn’t thought about it in years. Well that wasn’t quite true—she didn’t remember the music they played, or the decorations in the gym, or even the theme of the night. But she did remember stupidly dancing with Jonathan while he laughed, and sneaking champagne from the Harrington’s liquor cabinet that night, and the way her and Steve giggled through hungry kisses after Jonathan had left.

She flushed at the memories, taking a step back from the mantle. She cleared her throat before looking back at Steve, who looked like he was lost in his own thoughts.

“So, dinner?” She asked, and he smiled at her.

\---

They ate out on the patio, which wasn’t really anything more than a concrete rectangle outside of the Wilkes’ house with a metal table and chairs. It was a nice spot, quaint and quiet, well removed from the rest of the world.

“You guys want drinks? Wine, beer…?” Steve offered as Nancy and Jonathan sat down.

“Water’s fine,” Nancy said with a shake of her head and Jonathan nodded in agreement.

“Sure, I’ll be right back.” Steve shot them a cheerful grin before heading back inside, like he couldn’t believe they were sitting there. Nancy didn’t blame him.

She couldn’t help but fidget as they waited there, the wind whipping against her face. She knew logically that Steve had forgiven her a long time ago, but she still felt like she’d done something wrong, like she didn’t deserve to be here, having Steve wait on her like nothing had happened.

“You good?” Jonathan muttered from beside her.

Nancy blinked up at him, not realizing she’d been frowning down at the table. She nodded quickly, giving a small smile. “Yeah, of course.”

“Here we go,” Steve said as he kicked the door shut behind him, carefully balancing three glasses of water in his arms. He set them down on the table, looking around as Jonathan and Nancy didn’t move. “Come on, dig in before it gets cold!”

They piled their plates with salad, chicken, and pasta. Her mom hadn’t been lying-- Steve was a good cook. Nancy remembered he used to enjoy working in the kitchen back in high school, but he hadn’t been very talented. She supposed he’d kept practicing over the years.

“So, California, right?” Steve started, looking back and forth between them. “That’s where you’re headed next?”

“Yeah, Berkeley,” Jonathan answered back, glancing at Nancy. “Nancy, well, you should explain it.”

Nancy set her fork down. She hated talking about herself, but Steve was looking at her curiously. “I’ve got an internship starting in April that goes through the summer, and then I’m starting at Berkeley in the fall.”

“No fucking way, really?” Steve asked, awe in his voice. Nancy blushed at the words. “What for?”

“I’m, um, trying to get a doctorate in computational biology,” she answered back, feeling a sense of pride at the words. She’d worked her ass off to get into that program, feeling like she was going to break down more than once over the past year. She knew it hadn’t been easy on Jonathan either, trying to balance his own work while also living with someone who was constantly stressed, but he’d been the most grounding force in her life.

Steve was grinning at her. “Shit, that’s amazing Nance. I mean, I always knew you were gonna do something great, but that’s fantastic.”

Nancy shook her head, trying to get her hair to block how red her face was. “It’s not that big of a deal, really.”

“Maybe not in New York or California, or whatever, but it’s a pretty big deal here,” Steve corrected her, taking a bite of salad. As Nancy mulled that response over in her head, Steve turned to Jonathan. “So do you know what you’re gonna do?”

“Not really. Art majors aren’t the best for resumes,” Jonathan responded sarcastically, and Nancy fixed him with a look.

“Yeah, but you’ll be fine.” She turned to address Steve. “He actually already got contacted by this one studio in California for this nature magazine. They were interested in his work.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if I’m going to work for them,” Jonathan pressed. “It’s not close to where we work.”

Nancy shrugged, knowing they’d already had this conversation ten times.

“Well if you’re ever desperate, call me. I’m always eager to buy some Jonathan Byers originals,” Steve teased, making Jonathan smile subtly.

“What are you doing this summer?” Nancy asked, trying to be friendly. “Any big plans?”

Steve snorted. “Hardly. My dad’s getting remarried in May, so I’ve gotta be in Boston for that.”

“Oh, to, um…” Jonathan faded off, clearly trying to remember the name of Mr. Harrington’s old girlfriend, but Steve shook his head.

“Nah, some new woman, Alice. To be honest, I really don’t care.” Steve said with a roll of his eyes. “But other than that, I’m just working for the summer.”

“Well that’s good. Sometimes it’s nice to just take it easy,” Nancy replied, trying to sound excited. Steve threw her a bit of a strange look, but didn’t comment on it.

Jonathan and Steve took over the conversation at that point, the words flowing easily between them, and Nancy wondered why it was so difficult for her to do the same.

As the evening went on, the conversation grew less stifled, and Nancy slowly found herself relaxing. Steve told them about his vacation to Germany a few summers ago, and Nancy talked about her trip with her brother to Spain, even though Steve had already heard some of the details from Mike. After they’d gotten all the bigger topics out of the way, like siblings and school, they discussed smaller topics, like stupid adventures or embarrassing events, and Nancy was surprised at how easy the stories came to them all.

“That is _so_ not what happened,” Nancy said with a chuckle, shaking her head at her boyfriend. They’d finished dinner about an hour ago, but were still lounging outside at the table, having switched to beers about half an hour earlier.

Jonathan raised his eyebrows, a disbelieving grin on his face. “I remember it clear as day, Nancy. You set off the fire alarm!”

“Only because you were distracting me by verbally abusing our stereo,” Nancy shot back.

“It was being difficult,” Jonathan muttered. Steve, who had been smirking at them both through the argument, laughed. He’d always had an infectious laugh, and before Nancy knew it, they were all cracking up. 

“Well, long story short, we haven’t tried to make cookies since. Or bake at all, for that matter,” Jonathan concluded once they’d all caught their breath.

“Oh shit, that reminds me!” Steve suddenly exclaimed, getting to his feet. Nancy and Jonathan both looked at him sharply. “Wait here, I’ll be right back,” he assured them, running back into the house.

As soon as he was gone, Nancy let out a shaky breath, pulling her sweater tighter against herself to avoid the chilly wind. She hadn’t expected to enjoy this so much. She looked over at Jonathan, who looked like his mind was whirring at 60 mph.

"This is nice,” he said slowly, as if he was choosing his words carefully, and Nancy nodded.

“Yeah,” she breathed back, but before she could continue, Steve walked out again, this time holding a plate with three cupcakes on it.

“Here we go,” Steve said as he precariously sat the plate down on the table, placing one cupcake with a candle in the middle of it in front of Jonathan. “I know your 24th was last week, but what the hell. It’s better than nothing, right?”

Jonathan could only stare at the cupcake, and Nancy couldn’t blame him. This was the last thing she’d expected. Jonathan hated birthdays on principle, never one for blowout celebrations of any kind. They’d barely celebrated the week before, only going so far as to take the day off from packing for California and lounge around all day doing nothing. And how the hell did Steve even remember Jonathan’s birthday?

Steve didn’t seem to notice their surprise, instead fishing around in his pocket before pulling out a lighter and sparking the candle. “Happy birthday, man.” He grinned at Jonathan, who finally smiled back.

Jonathan blew out the candle after a moment, clearly not wanting the wax to melt, before shaking his head at Steve. “I can’t believe… I mean, you really didn’t have to-”

“Shut up, Byers,” Steve interrupted, not unkindly. He plucked the candle out of the cupcake and licking the frosting off of it. “Eat your damn cupcake.”

Jonathan obediently bit into the cupcake, and Nancy startled as he let out a loud moan. Steve looked at him with wide eyes. “Jesus, Steve, did you make these?”

Steve laughed, licking a wide stripe of frosting off the top of his own cupcake. “Nah, I wish. I picked ‘em up in the city yesterday. They’re good, aren’t they?”

"Is this lemon?” Jonathan asked in response, and Steve nodded. Nancy blinked, unable to hide her surprise at the fact that Steve still knew Jonathan’s favorite cake. She watched them eat for a minute before Steve realized she hadn’t moved and sent her an odd look. She grabbed her own dessert and bit into it before he could ask questions.

The conversation picked up again after they finished dessert. One things led to another led to another, and Nancy couldn’t remember the last time a conversation had gone so smoothly. They were all engaged in the stories and topics, but nobody talked over each other, and there was never even the slightest lull.

Before she knew it, Nancy was glancing at her watch, surprised to see it reading 11:54. “Shit, it’s almost midnight,” she spoke up instantly, and the boys blinked at her.

“Damn, you’re right.” Jonathan shook his head like he couldn’t believe it.

Steve smiled at them, but it was a strange smile, like he wasn’t sure where to go from here. “Sorry, we must have lost track of time.”

Nancy gave a hesitant smile. For some reason, she knew that there was a lot hanging on this moment, though she wasn’t sure why. “Time flies when you’re having fun, right?”

The flicker of fear in Steve’s eyes disappeared, and his smile was instantly brighter.

“Come on, we’ll help you clean up,” Jonathan spoke up, already reaching for the dishes on the table, but Steve slid the plate away from his hand.

“No, don’t worry about it. Seriously,” he added when Jonathan opened his mouth to argue. “You guys should probably get home before your parents start to worry.”

Nancy wanted to protest, but she knew her mother would be on edge, even if she was a fully-functioning adult at this point. Living at home had basically transformed her into a temporary child for the next two weeks, no matter how long she’d been living on her own.

They all got to their feet and made their way slowly through the house. They lingered in the front room just like they had after they’d arrived, but everything felt different now, like they’d somehow drifted back to an earlier time.

Jonathan broke the silence that Nancy hadn’t even realized had set in around them. He grinned at Steve, and the two of them hugged again. This time, it didn’t make Nancy feel so sick.

When Steve pulled back and looked at her again, she didn’t hesitate before letting herself hug him. She hadn’t been this close to him in almost five years, and out of nowhere it hit her how well they’d fit together, her head tucked perfectly into the crook of his neck.

It wasn’t a perfect hug. It was too short, and there was a slight fumble as they pulled away, like neither of them were sure if it was over or not. But when Steve smiled at her afterwards, she found that she didn’t really mind.

“I’ll see you in the morning, right?” he asked, and she frowned at him until he continued. “For Holly’s game?”

“Oh, right! Yeah sorry, I keep forgetting.” She apologized, quirking her lips in a smile. He smirked before looking past her to Jonathan.

“You gonna be there tomorrow?”

“I actually promised my mom I’d spend the morning with her,” Jonathan admitted, frowning slightly. “I may catch the end of it though.”

Steve nodded, but Nancy spotted a bit of disappointment in his eyes before he smiled. “Yeah, that’s cool. We usually have a party at someone’s house afterwards, and all the parents go too. You should come.”

Jonathan shrugged. “Yeah, definitely.”

“Thanks again for dinner, Steve,” Nancy spoke up. Jonathan nodded beside her, slipping his hand into hers, and Steve smiled between them.

"I’m glad you called.” There was a moment of silence between the three of them, a moment where they all just smiled at each other. And then Jonathan squeezed Nancy’s hand, and she looked away, opening the front door.

They exchanged a few more goodbyes before Jonathan and Nancy were climbing into their car and Steve was shutting the door behind him.

Her mom was still awake after Jonathan dropped her off at home, lounging on the couch with a book in hand. She looked up when Nancy walked in, tucking a bookmark in between the pages.

“How was it?” She asked, voice normal and even, lacking any hidden implications.

Nancy knew she could brush off the question without too much trouble, but instead she stopped, removing her sweater slowly as she picked out the words. “Good. It was really good.”

Karen nodded, and returned to her book, but Nancy saw the small smile on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow okay so that was 90% dialogue and I'm sorry it took me forever to write. It's summer for me now, and I really do want to finish this fic soon, so the next chapter shouldn't take very long.  
> Comments of literally any kind make my days and give me so much motivation to hurry up, so please please please comment below.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I finished this in so short a time, this was like the quickest update I've ever made. A lot of it's filler, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

“So what’s the probability they actually win this thing?” Nancy muttered in her mother’s ear as they navigated through the stands to find a seat.

Karen shot her a smile. “Oh, who knows. They’re not very good, but neither is the other team apparently.”

Nancy laughed in return as they found a nice spot on the bleachers. She sat down, threading her ponytail through her baseball cap to shield her eyes from the sun. She spotted Holly waiting by the pitch, looking incredibly nervous, so she stood up and waved as obviously as she could to catch her sister’s attention. It worked, and Holly lit up, waving back with enthusiasm. Nancy sat back down, satisfied, when someone caught her eye. Steve was waving subtly, and Nancy bit her lip to contain her smile as she waved back.

Her mother sat down on her other side, raising an eyebrow, and Nancy just ignored her and snatched up a bag of popcorn as the game began.

\---

Nancy spent the entire game bouncing in her seat from anxiety and excitement. Mike had never been interested in anything like this, and she’d never gotten to see Holly in action, and she was surprised by how much she enjoyed it. 

By some miracle, Holly’s tiny ragtag team managed to win the game, Holly scoring one of the only home runs of the game. As soon as it ended, the girls had all jumped on each other excitedly, squealing and hugging one another desperately like they couldn’t believe it.  
The spectators all watched them happily, and Nancy couldn’t stop grinning as she watched her baby sister, who was radiating pure joy.

As Nancy watched, Holly ran over to Steve, who had dropped his clipboard and hat in excitement. She jumped onto him, and he wrapped her up in a huge hug, spinning her around as he no doubt showered her in praise. As soon as he set her down, her teammates had surrounded them, and were all asking for hugs or high fives from Steve.

Nancy watched with a small smile, feeling a tight happiness in her chest as she watched the scene. She’d never seen Steve so over-the-moon about anything before. It was a nice sight.

“Come on.” Her mother interrupted her thoughts, pulling her purse onto her shoulder. “You go find Holly and we’ll bring the car around.”

Nancy did as she said, jogging down the stands to make her way to the pitch as her parents left for the parking lot. Many of the girls had found their families by that point or were chatting loudly with their friends. Nancy kept an eye out for her sister, but couldn’t pick her out of the crowd.

Instead, she found Steve, who was chatting with a young mom, whose daughter was pulling impatiently at her hand. The mother was laughing, swatting at Steve’s arm like he’d just said something outrageously funny, though he didn’t seem to see what the big deal was. 

Nancy raised her eyebrows as the mom kissed Steve’s cheek, resting her perfectly manicured hand against his shoulder. She then let herself be pulled away by her daughter, leaving Steve frowning after her.

“New girlfriend?” Nancy called with a grin as she walked towards him, waiting until she was close enough to not be overheard.

Steve frowned, tossing a look over his shoulder before turning back to Nancy, looking confused. “What?”

“You’ve got some lipstick on your cheek,” she teased lightly.

Steve blinked before laughing and wiping at his cheek with the back of his hand. “Gross, Wheeler. She’s old enough to be my mom.”

Nancy laughed, casting a disbelieving look to the woman who was definitely not over 35. “How old exactly do you think she is?” She asked, taking another sip of lemonade.

Steve just rolled his eyes. “Whatever, you know what I mean.”

“I don’t know, Steve, because unless you still think you’re like fifteen years old, it doesn’t really add up--” she continued, grinning as he interrupted her.

“You think you’re so funny, don’t you?” he asked, though he was laughing.

Nancy just shrugged, still smiling. “Hey, it was a good game,” she said after a second, words sincere.

“It was an awesome game,” he said in agreement, pride apparent in his voice.

“ _Naaancyyyy!_ ” Holly’s high-pitched shout rang out, and Nancy glanced over to see her sister running at her with arms outstretched.

“Holly!” Nancy called back with a large grin, sweeping her in an embrace as soon as she could reach her. She kissed her sister’s cheek firmly, ignoring the layer of sweat and dirt there. After hugging her, Nancy stood back up, smiling down at Holly.

“Did you see my home run?” Holly asked, bouncing up and down happily, pulling at Nancy’s hand. “Wasn’t it awesome?”

“It was completely awesome, Holly, you were incredible!” Nancy assured her sister, kissing the top of her head before pulling her sister against her as they both looked at Steve.

“Hey, you going to the Carlson’s?” Steve asked after a second, and Nancy frowned up at him. “For the party?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, I am,” Nancy answered back. “You?”

“Of course,” Steve replied with a grin. “I just gotta finish up some stuff here. But I’ll see you over there, right?”

“Yeah, see you there,” Nancy said with a small smile.

“See you later, third Wheeler,” Steve directed towards Holly, holding his hand out for a high five. Nancy laughed lightly, having forgotten that particular nickname.

“Bye Steve,” the little girl tossed back happily, slapping his hand loudly. Steve grinned, throwing one last wink to Nancy before jogging off to take care of business.

Nancy watched him leave, the two sisters standing in the middle of the field as the families chattered around them. After a second, Nancy looked down, surprised to see Holly grinning at her, a strange look in her eyes.

“What?” she asked defensively.

“Nothing,” Holly laughed back, breaking out of the loose hug Nancy was still holding her in and beginning to sprint. “Race you to the car!”

\---

“Hey.”

Nancy startled at Steve’s voice behind her, nearing dropping the glass of lemonade she was holding. He was standing about a foot behind her, hands shoved into his pockets as he looked at her.

“Jesus, you scared me,” she scolded, shoving his shoulder slightly. He grinned at that and grabbed a paper plate from off the table, beginning to gather some food.

Nancy waited patiently as Steve made himself lunch, sipping at her lemonade as she watched all of the people. She'd forgotten how small town Hawkins really was, but it was so obvious as she watched all the people chatting away, clearly immersed in each other's business. She'd gotten so used to the constant privacy and intimacy of New York. This was all so unfamiliar to her.

“Get enough food?” Nancy said with a smirk, as Steve left the table, looking down at the paper plate which could barely support all the food Steve had grabbed.

Steve shot her a look, though he was still smiling. He leaned in closer as they made their way through the crowd to whisper conspiratorially. “Look, these suburban parents may be ridiculous, but they don’t skimp on snacks. I’ve learned not to take it for granted.”

Nancy laughed, the comment taking her by surprise. Steve just grinned and grabbed a beer can out of one of the ice chests.

“Those girls really love you.” Nancy threw an amused glance behind Steve, where the young girls were waving at him excitedly. Steve glanced over at them, grinning as he waved back, making them all giggle and run away.

Steve shrugged casually, but Nancy could see the proud smile on his face. “I love them back. They’re good kids.”

Nancy nodded, sipping at her lemonade and waiting for him to finish piling food onto his plate. When he was done, she tilted her head towards the backyard, a silent question. Steve smiled and nodded in agreement. “You know, Holly never shuts up about you,” she said as they made their way outside. “I think she has a crush.”

Steve laughed again brightly, and Nancy couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Well you Wheeler girls always had good taste in men,” he teased with raised eyebrows.

Nancy laughed at that, closing the sliding door behind them. She sat down on the bench by the house, and Steve sat beside her, a couple of inches separating them.

“Speaking of, how’re things with Byers?” Steve asked through a mouthful of chips, and Nancy rolled her eyes at his manners before focusing on the question.

“Wonderful,” she said honestly, never one to downplay her relationship with Jonathan. She supposed they weren’t perfect, but she couldn’t imagine living without him, and she knew he felt the same way. “He’s amazing. I mean, you know that.”

Steve hummed in agreement, swallowing his food before tossing her a cheerful glance. “You two certainly took your time. How long’s it been since you guys got together?”

“It’ll be two years on March 16th,” Nancy answered immediately, a bit embarrassed at how quickly the date came to her. Steve just chuckled, and after a moment she continued. “I spent Spring Break with him in New York that year. It was one of the best weeks of my life. We were at this old tiny restaurant by his place and were both more than a little tipsy. He started taking pictures of me-- I mean, it’s Jonathan-- and then out of nowhere he kissed me.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, though Nancy wasn’t sure what he meant. He chuckled, shaking his head, and she just waited patiently for an explanation. “You know, he called me that night.”

Nancy frowned. “What?”

Steve looked at her, a smile playing on his lips like he had a secret. “Yep. About midnight, I think, he called out of the blue. I thought it was a bit weird, we hadn’t talked in months beside the customary call on his birthday, but he said that he needed to talk to someone, and then he just started freaking out. It took me a while to actually figure out what was going on-- he just kept saying your name over and over again, I thought you may have died or something-- and then he finally blurts out ‘ _Sorry if it’s weird, but I just kissed Nancy Wheeler and I don’t know what to do_ ’.”

Steve imitated Jonathan so well that Nancy couldn’t help the loud laugh that escaped her. Steve was laughing too, eyes tilted towards the sky in memory. “We stayed up for like another hour talking about it all. He made me promise not to tell anyone’s parents, because he didn’t want to jinx it.”

Nancy couldn’t stop smiling. “I never knew that. I can’t believe he called you.”

“I’m glad he did,” Steve said, his voice so genuine that it took Nancy by surprise. He was staring into space, still clearly caught up in that phone call. “I missed those phone calls more than I knew.”

Perhaps it was the words, or the suspicious brightness in his eyes, or just the adrenaline of the story, but suddenly Nancy couldn’t handle any of it.

“I’m so sorry.” The words slipped out of Nancy’s mouth before she could process them. But now that she’d said them, there was no way she was backing down. She was going to do what she should’ve done ages ago. “I’m sorry I left you behind.”

Steve had set his plate down beside, looking resigned. The memory of April 1988 was gone from both of their minds, and she wished he would smile again. “Nancy, come on, we don’t have to do this--”

“Yes we do,” Nancy said as firmly as she could, hoping he’d ignore the way her voice was shaking. “I should’ve said this years ago.

“I _promised_ that I’d come back, that I’d call, that college wouldn’t change things, and I just… I forgot about you. Who does that?” Her voice rose in pitch, and she wasn’t even looking at him anymore, just asking herself questions. 

“About 98% of all high school sweethearts,” Steve answered wryly.

Nancy shot him in a look, feeling her eyes start to burn with tears. “Don’t do that. Don’t act like you were just some _high school sweetheart_. You know you were more than that. You were one of the most important people in my life.”

Steve looked down and cleared his throat. “Sorry. I know.”

“No, don’t--” she looked up at the sky, blinking rapidly. “Don’t apologize. I’m the one who just _forgot_ \--”

“You didn’t forget, you moved on.” Steve set his food to the side so he could place a comforting hand on her shoulder. She leaned into the touch on instinct. “You were living a life, I was 600 miles away, and you moved on. It’s not a crime.”

Nancy shook her head, eyes burning as her breath came in shorter spurts. “I left you in the dust. I never even told you it was over. I just left and let you pick up the pieces by yourself and I didn’t return any of your calls--”

Steve lifted her chin with his other hand. Nancy’s words broke away as she ran out of breath, and she could only stare at him with parted lips.

“Nancy,” he said as gently as he could. He leaned close and made sure she was looking at him before he continued. “You wanted to forget about Indiana. I don’t blame you, alright? It was a nightmare for you. I was still here, and so you blocked me out too. I’m not saying you didn’t mess up, but it doesn’t make you a bad person. It just makes you a human being, okay? And you’ve got to stop acting like I’m some martyr who just let you kick me to the curb. I _was_ angry, for a while, and I was stupid about it, but I got over it, and I grew up.”

_But we were supposed to grow up together,_ she wanted to reply.

He was breathing steadily, and it was easy for Nancy to match the breaths, calming down slowly. Steve let his hand slip away from her after a moment, and she felt instantly colder.

“I didn’t even call when you dropped out of school,” she whispered, her voice breaking. Now that she wasn’t talking in hysterics, she just sounded broken. “Your parents got divorced and your dad moved out of state, and you dropped out of college and I didn’t even call to check in on you. Jonathan called. Jonathan kept in touch with you more than I ever did, and you weren’t even dating him.”

She finished the sentence sarcastically, surprised when Steve gave a small laugh. He was smiling, even if it was a bit sad around the edges. He bumped their shoulders together playfully. “Come on Nance. Wasn’t I?”

Nancy blinked up at him. The amused smile on his lips shocked her and she gave a watery laugh.

“I guess you were,” she responded after a second, chest feeling a bit lighter. It felt weird to talks about everything that had gone down between the three of them that last year. It had always felt so taboo, so secretive, even though she knew now that other people had noticed. She’d never talked to either of the others about any of that, and hearing Steve joke about it now made her feel better, like she hadn’t been crazy or made it up.

Steve leant back against the brick wall, still smiling slightly, and sipped at his beer silently as Nancy wiped the tears off of her cheeks. She sat up straight again, repositioning subtly so their sides were touching, and she found that it made it easier to breathe.

“Can I ask you something?” Nancy asked bravely after a few minutes of silence. She looked at him, determined, and he raised his eyebrows, a quiet consent. “Did you and Jonathan ever kiss?”

Steve instantly coughed, turning it into disbelieving laughter after a moment. “What?”

Nancy blushed. It was a bit of a ridiculous question. “I’ve always wanted to know, but every time I go to ask Jonathan, I get embarrassed. I’m just curious.”

Steve was still laughing, but he was clearly trying to stop. Nancy waited patiently, her cheeks warming. “Sorry,” he managed after a long moment. “That’s just… really adorable.”

Well now she was definitely blushing.

“No, we didn’t,” Steve finally answered, staring into space thoughtfully. “Well, we may have once, when I was drunk. I don’t think that counts.”

That made sense. Steve had always been an affectionate person, and alcohol only heightened that aspect of his personality.

“You loved him, didn’t you?” Nancy asked, her voice barely audible over the voices coming from inside. They were both staring forwards, not looking at each other, but she’d never been so aware of anyone in her life. Her heart was pounding, and she wondered how she'd gotten to this point where she felt brave enough to ask.

“Yes,” he replied after a beat, his voice hoarse, not sounding particularly sad or angry, just honest. “So did you.”

“Why didn’t we do anything about it?” Nancy asked in one quick breath, turning towards him at this point. “We loved him, and he loved us, and we didn’t do anything.”

“It was 1984 Hawkins, Nancy.” Steve’s voice was quiet and comforting, and he glanced at her with a sad expression. “We were scared.”

“So?” she pushed.

“People don’t do a lot of things when they’re scared,” Steve said, and it hit her hard.

She hadn’t allowed herself to think about the three of them together in so long. It had always felt like a thing in the distant past, more of a dream than something that actually could have happened. But now, sitting beside Steve Harrington in Hawkins, Indiana, she found herself longing for the same things she had been thinking about five years ago. Those boys had been her entire life in 1984. After Barb, Hawkins had always felt cursed, but they were the shred of normalcy and hope that she had gripped onto. All of a sudden, she wanted that back.

The thought shocked her, and she inhaled sharply.

Steve glanced at her, a curious expression on his face, and she smiled at him. He grinned back, looping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a side hug. She felt herself relax at the contact, leaning her head against his shoulders as he sipped at his beer.  
She didn’t know what she was doing. She felt like she was running on uneven ground, unsure of what was coming next. But as long as she just kept it inside, it couldn’t hurt anybody.

The back door slid open, and Nancy jumped, looking over to see Jonathan walk out. He stopped when he saw them, frowning apologetically.

“Sorry, am I interrupting?” He sounded genuinely sorry, and Nancy smiled at him. She didn’t know what to do about Steve, but she knew without a doubt she loved Jonathan, and that would always be enough for her.

“Not at all, man,” Steve said, grinning at him as he removed the arm from around Nancy’s shoulder. “When did you get here?”

“A few minutes ago. Sorry I missed the game.” Jonathan apologized again as he sat at Nancy’s other side.

“We missed you,” Nancy said honestly, catching his hand in hers and threading their fingers together. He smiled at her, as shy as ever, kissing her lightly on the lips. 

After they parted, Jonathan cast a glance past Nancy to where Steve was sitting.

“Steve, I’m pretty sure Nancy’s sister has a crush on you,” he said with a small smile, and Nancy and Steve both burst out laughing.

They managed to sit out there for ten minutes without interruption, cracking small jokes as Jonathan and Steve passed a cigarette back and forth. Nancy had smoked a bit in college, but she’d been able to quit right after graduation, and was currently bugging Jonathan to drop the habit as well. She didn’t say anything that afternoon, though. It was too peaceful.

Their moment of tranquility was broken when the door slid open again and Nancy’s father looked out. “Nancy, come on inside. Your mother wants you to socialize.”

Nancy groaned as soon as her father was back inside. The other two chuckled at her dramatics, so she snatched the cigarette out of Steve’s finger and threw it in the trashcan, smirking at their protests. She could be petty too.

Steve and Jonathan followed her anyway, and all of them were immediately whisked into conversations with nosy adults as soon as they were inside.

After explaining her entire life story to two different couples, she was now stuck listening to an old woman rant about her grandson’s choice in friends. Nancy nodded along, trying to look interested, but subtly glanced around the room.

Her eyes fell on Jonathan quickly enough, and she grimaced as she watched him be bombarded with what looked like intense questions from some suburban dad. His shoulders were tense, and he was breathing quickly enough for Nancy to know that his social anxiety was kicking in. Jonathan always hated small talk, and especially hated questions about what he was doing with his life, since most of them turned into _“how are you going to make money in photography?”_

Nancy wondered how easy it would be to get out of this conversation to go save him when Steve suddenly appeared next to Jonathan, clapping a hand on his shoulder, and began talking rapidly with the older man. It looked like a weight had been taken off of Jonathan’s chest, and he stared at Steve with something akin to awe. Steve’s hand didn’t leave his shoulder through the whole conversation.

Nancy watched with parted lips as Jonathan watched Steve, a smile playing on his lips, his eyes shining brightly. He looked so happy, and the look lit something bright and special in Nancy’s chest.

As if sensing her gaze, Jonathan glanced over and their eyes met. Jonathan shrugged with one shoulder, giving a half-hearted smile, and she smiled widely back.

The woman in front of her asked her an anxious-sounding question, and Nancy turned back, resigning herself to the conversation at hand.  
Jonathan and Nancy left the party an hour later hand in hand, both relieved at the silence. As they walked back to Jonathan’s car, he spoke up. “That wasn’t so bad,  
was it?”

“No,” Nancy responded. “It really wasn’t.”

\---

“Oh man, look at this one,” Nancy laughed, handing Jonathan a picture. “You look completely stoned.”

Jonathan took the picture from where he was leaning against the edge of her bed, immediately groaning as he saw it. “Nancy, I think I was stoned.”

Nancy laughed, feeling a unique lightness in her chest. They were flipping through old boxes of photos that Nancy had kept in her room. Most of them were of the Wheelers when they were much younger, but some of them were more recent, mostly high school.

“This is a good one,” Jonathan said, holding one up for her to grab. She smiled slightly at the picture of her and her two siblings, sitting in a train as Mike braided daisies into Holly’s hair and Nancy did the same to Mike. 

“Mike hated that,” Nancy mused out loud, smirking slightly. “Luckily Holly’s cute enough to get her way about everything.”

They flipped through the photos a while longer, occasionally chuckling and showing each other something before moving on. After a while, Nancy set the photographs aside, laying her head against the pillow as she watched Jonathan. She sometimes forgot how much younger he'd been when they'd first met and when they'd become friends, and how much had changed since then. 

“Can you come up here?” Nancy asked, pulling lightly at his collar. “You’re too far away.”

Jonathan chuckled quietly, but obediently set the pictures aside and scrambled up onto the bed beside her, their shoulders pressed together as they stared up at the pale ceiling.

“This bed is so uncomfortable,” Nancy complained, adjusting again to get closer to Jonathan and away from the edge. Jonathan didn’t seem to mind, letting her fidget until she finally felt comfortable.

Jonathan snorted suddenly, looking at another polaroid. It was another picture of Mike, this time with Dustin as well, who both had looks of terror on their face, as Steve had picked the opportune moment to scare them. 

“Nice timing,” Jonathan mused, and Nancy rolled her eyes, grabbing the photo.

“Yeah well, timing was never much of a problem with Steve,” Nancy replied with an amused huff, thinking about Steve’s perfectly appearance that one night in November.

Jonathan didn’t reply for a long moment. Nancy frowned and looked over at him, only to blink in surprise when she saw him biting his lip to hold back laughter, his shoulders shaking. She thought back over what she’d said, feeling a rush of embarrassment wash over her. She set the photo aside and brought her hands to her face, closing her eyes.

“Jonathan, oh my god, that’s not--”

Jonathan broke into breathless laughs, and she couldn’t help but laugh back, shoving her slightly with her shoulder.

“You’re terrible, oh my god, Steve’s rubbed off on you,” she reprimanded.

That only made him laugh harder, and Nancy buried her face in her hands, unable to believe herself at that moment. Jonathan continued to laugh, until finally Nancy had had enough embarrassment and rolled on top of him, kissing him firmly to shut him up.

She pulled away after a few seconds, holding herself over him. Jonathan was still grinning at her, but he wasn’t laughing at her anymore, which was something. They stared at each other for several moments, love and contentment in their eyes. For a moment she thought about all of this stuff with Steve, all of the uncertainty she'd been mulling over in her mind. But being here with Jonathan, everything made more sense.

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she told him, the words more honest than she’d been aiming for.

Jonathan blinked up at her, surprise in his eyes, though she suspected it was mostly due to the sudden nature of her words rather than the words themselves. He frowned slightly, and she continued speaking before he could cut in.

“I just… I want you to know that. If it weren’t for you, I would have never been brave enough to just move to California and start this internship, and Berkeley, and everything. I owe you so much.”

She was whispering at this point, emphasizing the words so he could understand how much she meant it all.

“Nancy--” he whispered back, his voice hoarse.

“I know it hasn’t been easy on you,” she interrupted again. She didn’t know where this was coming from, but she needed to get it all out. “I know we haven’t come back to Hawkins as much as you’ve wanted, and I know a lot of that was my fault--”

“Nancy, what are you doing?” Jonathan asked, frowning up at her. She huffed a breath. What was she doing. She took a deep breath.

“I never want you to feel like you have to give things up for me. I… California’s a long way away, and I know you miss your family, and I don’t want--”

“Nancy, you’re my family,” Jonathan replied easily, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. She turned her head and kissed his palm, knowing exactly where the scar was that laid there. “Seriously.”

Nancy sighed but nodded, leaning her forehead against his. “I know, I just. I worry sometimes. That I’m dragging you along or something.”

“You’re not,” Jonathan whispered against her lips. “This is our life. I want to do this with you. We’re in this together.”

Nancy smiled down at him, pressing their lips together. Jonathan didn’t waste time in responding, pressing a hand to the back of her head to pull her closer.

“Nancy, Jonathan, dinner’s ready!” Karen Wheeler’s voice rang out from downstairs. Nancy pulled back and sighed. Jonathan just smiled up at her.

“I love you,” Nancy whispered.

“I love you too,” Jonathan whispered back, and Nancy couldn’t resist kissing him again. She didn’t know how she was so lucky to have this kind of love in her life. She wouldn’t give it up for anything.

“ _Nancy!_ ” Her mother called again, and Nancy pulled back immediately, throwing a glare at the door.

“I’m _coming_!” She shot back, irritation blooming in her chest. “God, why does living at home make me an automatic teenager again?”

Jonathan just laughed from beneath her. He kissed her cheek before sitting up and climbing off the bed. He grabbed her hand and pulled her off the bed, and she threaded their fingers together as they made their way downstairs. She would never give this up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The brilliant, lovely Ely wrote a oneshot based off of one of the photographs Jonathan and Nancy look at in her bedroom, and I recommend you all go read it immediately because it's absolutely adorable. Read it [here!](https://beep-beep-trashmouth.tumblr.com/post/161013378676/wilder-people)
> 
> Hope you guys liked it! Please leave comments, they're the only motivation I get to keep going on these chaptered fics!
> 
> Talk to me on [tumblr](http://www.ghost-grantaire.tumblr.com)!


	5. Chapter 5

Despite her uncertainty, Nancy couldn’t deny that things changed after that. Talking things out with Steve seemed to remove any lingering tension between the two of them, clearing the air at long last. The three of them went back to something dangerously familiar, and although Nancy knew she needed to step back, she just… couldn’t.

A week ago, the idea of talking to Steve Harrington had made her almost panicky. Now, the idea filled her with excitement. Suddenly it felt like they were back to spending all of their time together again. She wanted to blame Steve, wanted to convince herself he was the one pushing them all together, but she knew it wasn’t him. Even when it was just and her and Jonathan, she couldn’t help but bring up Steve’s name in conversations, and she could hear Jonathan doing the same.  
But Nancy didn’t know what any of it meant, so she just pushed it to the back of her mind and tried not to think about it.

She was lying in her bed after a long day spent with her parents when knock at the window made her jump. Her head snapped to look, and she shook her head in exasperation when she saw Steve grinning in at her. She made a big show of groaning as she got to her feet, although inside she couldn’t help but feel excited at just seeing him.

“Aren’t you a bit old for this?” She asked as soon as she opened the window. Steve raised his eyebrows, a silent _are you seriously asking me that_ , before explaining impatiently.

“Come on, we’re getting milkshakes. There’s a buy one get one free deal at Dairy Queen.”

“Since when does Hawkins have a Dairy Queen?” Nancy asked with a frown.

“It doesn’t,” Steve said, looking slightly bashful. “There’s one off the freeway though, it’s only like a twenty-five minute drive. You coming or not?”

Nancy looked out the window, smiling in amusement when she saw Jonathan standing in the yard. He shrugged at her, and she laughed. “Just a second.”

She pulled on some sneakers haphazardly before climbing out of the window after him. She knew logically she could just take the front door, but she couldn’t resist the buzz that came from sneaking out like a teenager.  
Steve jumped down from the roof easily, having way too much experience climbing up and down the Wheeler’s house. Jonathan waited for Nancy, grabbing her hand to help her jump down and not letting go as they walked to Steve’s old car.

“You couldn’t have called?” She asked Jonathan quietly, not actually upset.

Jonathan sent her a look, seeming slightly embarrassed. “Steve wanted to surprise you. I couldn’t say no.”

“Come on, slowpokes!” Steve called, already sitting in the driver’s seat. 

Nancy and Jonathan shared a look. She’d forgotten how many late night trips came with being friends with Steve, but she wasn’t complaining.  
By the fond smile on Jonathan’s face, neither was he.

The drive to DQ was short enough but fun nonetheless. Nancy sat in the back, but she spent most of the drive leaning over to the front seat and trying to take control of the radio. It wasn’t that she really cared about what they listened to, but it was worth it just to see the other men outraged (mostly Jonathan).

They ordered after a bunch of bickering, deciding they’d just get two milkshakes and split them. Nancy managed to bully them into getting one strawberry, even though she was the only one who actually enjoyed the flavor, and they agreed on vanilla for Jonathan, even though Steve teased him about being boring. They pulled up to the expo window, still laughing amongst themselves as they waited for the drinks.

“Oh, hey Harrington,” the voice from the window answered, and Nancy frowned, leaning forward to look inside. She blinked rapidly as she recognized the person inside as none other than Tommy Harding, frowning slightly as he looked at them. His demeanor wasn’t quite friendly, but it was still less vicious than Nancy would have anticipated.

“Hey Tommy,” Steve answered back, seeming unshaken and giving a polite nod in greeting. “How’ve you been?”

Tommy shrugged in response, a clear sign of “fine”. After a second, his eyes flickered to Nancy and Jonathan, and he blinked in recognition. Nancy held her breath and she could see Jonathan tense out of the corner of her eye.

“Forgot you guys were back in town,” he mused calmly. Nancy was once again struck by how far news traveled in small towns. His eyes lingered a bit too long on Nancy in a way that made her slightly uncomfortable, but she held his gaze all the same. He eventually looked back at Steve, a weird smirk sneaking onto his face. “Look at you three. Back together again, huh?”

Nancy didn’t know how to respond to that, and judging by the others’ silence, they felt the same way. Her eyes darted to Steve, but he was still looking at the window away from them.

“Um--” Jonathan started, but Tommy cut him off, leaning slightly out of the window as he grinned.

“How’s it been being back in Hawkins?” Tommy drawled as he handed over the milkshakes. Steve set them down in the cupholders, and Nancy fumbled to answer.

“It’s okay,” she said after an awkward pause. She cleared her throat, eyes flicking to Steve, although she couldn’t see his expression from the back seat. “It’s been fun.”

“Yeah?” Tommy said with a snort before reading out the amount due. Steve handed over the change dutifully. “I bet it’s fun for you, huh Steve? Probably the most exciting thing to happen around here in a while.”

Nancy held her breath, strangely anxious for Steve’s response. But Steve didn’t say anything, just giving a small laugh and gathering the change to tuck back into his pocket. “See you around, Tommy,” Steve said. Tommy smirked and raised his hand in a goodbye before Steve pulled ahead and rolled the window back up.

There was a silence as they pulled back out onto the road, and Nancy suddenly missed the pulsing of the radio.

“Didn’t realize he still lived here,” Jonathan said finally, breaking the pause.

“Yeah, I see him around sometimes when I swing over there. He lives pretty close too, comes into town sometimes to shop,” Steve said, reaching over to dip the extra straw in Jonathan’s milkshake and using it as a spoon. “He’s mellowed out, you know, since high school.”

“Is it weird, running into him?” Jonathan asked, looking over at him with a frown.

Steve shrugged, shaking his head. “Nah, not really. I mean, we’re not friends, I still think he’s kind of an ass, but we’re all different people now, right?”

“We’re not that different,” Jonathan said immediately. Both Steve and Nancy looked at him, and he faltered under their stares. “I mean, we’re all the same people.”

“Sure, Byers,” Steve joked, grinning over at him. He reached over and ruffled Jonathan’s hair, much to Jonathan’s disdain. “You’re still the same pretentious perv you always were, don’t worry.”

“Fuck off,” Jonathan grumbled, but Nancy could see the blush coloring his cheeks. She smiled at him, feeling inexplicably fond of her boyfriend in that moment.

“And Miss Wheeler’s the same badass genius,” Steve continued, snatching the maraschino cherry from Nancy’s strawberry milkshake and popping it into his mouth.

“And you’re what?” Nancy teased back. “The same heartthrob of Hawkins?”

Steve was quiet for a second. He was frowning like he was concentrating hard on something, and Nancy felt a frown cross over her own features, feeling slightly worried that she’d said something wrong.

But then Steve broke out into a smile, and before she could question him, he opened his mouth. It took her a couple of seconds to realize he had a cherry stem in his mouth, tied into a perfect knot. Nancy couldn’t help but chuckle and roll her eyes, and after a second he turned and flicked the stem into Jonathan’s milkshake, making Nancy’s boyfriend groan in disgust.

“Gross, Steve!” Jonathan complained, picking out the stem with his fingers and throwing it on the floor of the car. Nancy laughed, flopping back to the backseat.

“You’re an idiot Steve Harrington,” she said through a laugh.

There was a strange silence, and it took Nancy a long moment to realize what she was waiting for. The absence of the reply was deafening and  
she glanced at Steve, who was staring at the road expressionless.

He seemed to feel her gaze, and he gave her a small but genuine smile through the rearview mirror. “Some things don’t change, right?”

\---

On Thursday, Nancy drove to the cemetery at the edge of town. Jonathan had offered to go with her, but she had to do this by herself.  
It was sunny that day, not a cloud in the sky. Barb had always loved that weather. Nancy thought back to the summer they’d gone on a roadtrip to the beach. Barb had barely gone inside, even though her skin had burned to a crisp, and Nancy couldn’t stop poking fun at her for a week.

The grass around Barb’s grave was green, but not untouched, like it was used to having people standing over it. Nancy supposed that was a good thing. She knelt down in front of the headstone, setting down a photograph that she’d snapped at Lake Erie that past fall. It’d become a habit for Nancy to leave photographs, mostly of the places that Barb had always dreamed of going. She knew they faded quickly in the sun, but she didn’t think that mattered much. They weren’t for other people. They were for Barb.

“Hey Barb,” she whispered quietly, laying a hand on top of the warm stone. “Sorry I haven’t come by in a while.”

She sat there for over an hour, talking about anything and everything. At one point she shifted to lean back against the grave, tilting her head towards the sky, threading her fingers through the grass.

It occurred to her, not for the first time, that Barb wasn’t actually there in the ground. She was still lost somewhere in the Upside Down, and Nancy’s voice faded away as she thought about it, feeling completely alone for one terrible moment.

“I’ll come back more,” Nancy said with a shaky breath. There were tears trailing down her cheeks, though she wasn’t sure when she’d started to cry. “I’m so sorry. I think about you all the time, I do. I miss you every single day.”

She whispered the ending, feeling a wrecked sob shake her body. She could feel the weight of the whole trip bearing down on her, and she had finally reached a tipping point. Her mind was racing and she felt like she was reliving every moment of insecurity or anxiety from the past couple weeks, and it was all just too much.

“Jonathan’s incredible, I love him more than anything, but…” she broke off, taking a few wrecked breaths. “He just can’t help me with all of this. And especially with this stuff with Steve… God I wish you were here. I need you to tell me what to do.”

She laid a gentle hand on top of the grave, feeling the cool stone underneath her palm. Her sobs slowly died off, though she continued to take slow measured breaths.  
“Except you’d probably just tell me I’m being dramatic, wouldn’t you?” She gave a watery laugh and wiped her face.

“I just feel like this whole time I’ve been running away from something. I tried to pretend I was running _to_ Philadelphia… but I think I was just running _from_ Hawkins. And now, with California… I just don’t know what I’m doing anymore, Barb,” she confessed with a small shake of her head. She’d always hated admitting when she didn’t know something, but the words felt like a relief to admit out in the open.

Nancy leaned against the stone once more, tilting her head back to stare at the sky. She stayed there for ten more minutes, lost in thought and memories before she finally managed to push herself back up and make her way to her car.  
She drove without thinking, and before she knew it, she was sitting outside the Byers’ house, looking in at the house that somehow seemed timeless. The yard was in better shape than it was back in high school, but the house itself looked like it had been unchanged, like it hadn’t aged a day since she’d left it last.

She opened the car door and made her way to the porch. Jonathan must have heard the car pull up because in a second he was opening the door and walking outside to meet her halfway. As soon as Nancy reached him, she wasted no time in embracing him tightly, crumbling into his arms.

They hugged for several minutes, and Nancy reveled in the comfort of his arms around her. He didn’t try to talk, which she always appreciated about him. He left things alone when the situation called for it, didn’t kick up dirt and disturb things that needed to rest. Her tears bubbled over again, but her emotions felt calmer now, and the tears were simply a way to purge everything that had built up inside her.

She blinked her tears away after a moment and glanced over Jonathan’s shoulder in the process.

Steve was standing on the Byers’ porch, hands tucked into his pockets, watching them sadly. She wasn’t surprised to see him there, and wondered briefly if that was a testament to how quickly they’d all become codependent again. Steve was suddenly a constant in her life again, and a constant in Jonathan’s, just like he used to be.

Nancy pulled back from Jonathan just barely, wiping her eyes and held out a hand towards the other man. Steve walked down the steps and took her hand obediently, giving her a sad smile, and she pulled him gently into a hug, not letting go of Jonathan as she did so.

Steve didn’t waste time in wrapping his arms around her. God she’d missed this more than she’d realized. Steve had always been such an affectionate person-- she probably hadn’t gone a single week her senior year without hugging him at least once. She felt one of his arms adjust to wrap around Jonathan as well, and then the three of them were hugging tightly and breathing deeply.

Nancy wasn’t stupid. She knew what was happening. This was the summer of 1985 all over again, except now the Unspoken Thing wasn’t college, but California.

They’d gone down this path before. She knew how it ended.

But for right now, she pushed that out of her head, and embraced her boys. This would be enough for now.

\---

“I found more beer!” Steve called, throwing the back door of his house open. Nancy and Jonathan both laughed and gave light cheers.

“Our hero,” Nancy joked happily and laid back on the cool grass. She was giddy from friends and beer and the endless sky in front of her. 

It was Saturday night, and the sun had set hours before. Nancy and Jonathan left early Monday, and it was understood that this was their last real night together. They didn’t bother talking about it-- they all knew it was true, so why bother saying it out loud? It ruined the peace that they had going.

There was a yelp as Steve suddenly slipped on a wet spot on the concrete from where they’d dropped a drink earlier, almost crashing back to land on his ass. Nancy felt her heart skip a beat before Steve caught himself, looking a bit too smug at the save.

Steve grinned wildly at them, continuing to walk their way. He smirked over at Jonathan, who had nearly jumped to his feet when Steve had slipped. “Worried about me, Byers?”

Jonathan glared at him, taking the last swing of his beer before setting the can aside. 

“Worried about my camera,” he corrected, gesturing to the camera that was perched against Steve’s chest after he’d nicked it from Jonathan’s bag earlier.. Nancy smirked-- she’d missed their bickering, though she didn’t dare admit that to them. They’d never shut up.

“Uh-uh,” Steve agreed sarcastically. He hopped down from the hood of the car, grinning at Jonathan as he began to croon. “ _When you call my name, it’s like a little prayer, I’m down on my knees--_ ”

Nancy couldn’t help but crack up at the song, and Jonathan was laughing too, although he threw his empty beer can towards Steve, who dodged it easily.

“You’re more of an idiot than I remember,” Jonathan laughed out. Steve pretended to kick the beer can back towards Jonathan, though he stopped his foot before it hit.

“Nancy still loves me, at least,” Steve said after sitting, holding the camera lens in his mouth as he leaned close to the ground to get a low shot of her.

“Sure, Steve,” Nancy agreed through gentle laughs. Steve drew back from the camera slightly to adjust the angle and their eyes met, and suddenly Nancy wondered if she’d been a bit too honest. But he kept smiling at her, so she couldn’t regret it too much.

She tilted her head back again and stared at the stars. “I forgot how many stars there were,” she said after a moment, staring up at the sky in wonder. “It's like the world is bigger out here.”

Steve snorted. “You didn't accidentally eat any of those brownies in my kitchen, did you Nance?”

Nancy kicked at him, making him laugh and dodge back, the camera hitting his chest.

“You’re gonna break my camera,” Jonathan said as he watched Steve carefully. He didn’t seem very concerned, and Nancy got the feeling he just said it to annoy Steve.

“Am not,” Steve shot back, switching his focus to his task of photographing Nancy from weird angles. He was now laying on his back, stretched out like a cat as he held the camera towards her, looking extremely awkward. “Besides, if I do I’ll just buy you a new one.”

“Do you have any idea how expensive those cameras are now?” Jonathan asked with a snort.

Steve groaned and sat up. He took one last photo, this time of Jonathan, who blushed under the camera lens, before handing the camera back. “You’re boring.”

Jonathan took his camera back and tucked it back into it’s bag, setting it safely to the side, but Nancy could see the small smile playing on his lips. “Hey, how’s your mom doing?”

Steve made a face. Apparently he ate breakfast with him mother every other Saturday, which impressed Nancy, seeing as Jackie Harrington wasn’t exactly the easiest person to converse with on a regular basis. But Steve had grown closer with him mom after his dad moved to Boston, and Nancy was glad that he had a real relationship with at least one of his parents now.

“She’s fine. Stressed as ever with her work, but she’s the one who decided to be a lawyer, so there’s only so much you can do.” Steve said as he made his way to the ice chest to grab another beer.

“Well if you ever want to adopt my mom as your own, go for it. I’m pretty sure she already think of you as her oldest son,” Nancy said with a laugh, and Steve grinned at the joke, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

“Tell Karen she can expect some competition,” Jonathan said with a snort. “My mom’s already cooking you meals and the chief’s getting you to do yard work. I don’t think they know what to do without any boys running around.”

Steve’s grin only widened, as if the idea of having two families hypothetically fight over him was the best compliment he’d ever received. He grabbed two beers, tossing one to Jonathan, who’d finished his already. “Heads up Johnny Boy,” he called, and Jonathan caught it easily, throwing Steve an unimpressed look as they both opened their cans.

“Johnny Boy, really?” Jonathan deadpanned and Steve grinned into his beer.

“What, you don’t miss my nicknames?”

Jonathan shrugged, taking a sip. “I wouldn’t say that,” he muttered back. He caught Nancy’s eye, and they shared a small amused smile.

“These moms are sort of killing my reputation though, I gotta say,” Steve muttered, flopping onto the ground beside Nancy. He laid back, shuffling around on the ground, trying to find a comfortable position before landing with his head pillowed on her thighs. He grabbed the cigarette tucked behind his ear and held it between his lips as he tried to light it, the slight breeze extinguishing the flame.

Nancy snorted quietly, and her and Jonathan traded glances. “I’m sorry, what reputation is that again?” she asked, trying not to laugh.

“My bad boy rap,” Steve replied. He finally got the cigarette lit and let it dangle from his lips as pushed himself to his elbows and looked at them both as though they’d physically hurt him. His seriousness pushed both Nancy and Jonathan over the edge.

“Steve, you’ve never in your life had a bad boy reputation,” Jonathan managed, almost doubled over in laughter.

“Yeah, I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re like the biggest dork I know,” Nancy said teasingly.

Steve looked between them, horrified, speaking with closed lips as he kept the cigarette in his mouth. “I am not!”

“Remind me who’s idea the matching Halloween costumes were?” Nancy drawled, making Jonathan laugh even harder.

Steve’s eyes widened even further. “Tom Cruise is not dorky!”

Nancy and Jonathan just kept laughing. “Some friends you are,” Steve pouted, dropping his head back into Nancy’s lap. A piece of his hair flopped into his face, and Nancy brushed it back immediately, keeping her hand in his hair. She combed through it absentmindedly, and Steve leaned into the touch, a soft smile on his face. 

“Sorry Steve,” Jonathan said, grinning at them. “You’re just too pretty to get that rap.”

Steve lifted his head an inch off of Nancy’s lap to look at him, raising his eyebrows. “You trying to start a fight, Byers?”

Nancy chuckled, easily seeing where this was going. “Play nice, boys,” she called teasingly.

Steve threw her a grin, an excited glint in his eyes, but Jonathan just rolled his eyes and took a sip of his beer, looking unconcerned. “I don’t see how getting your ass kicked would help you secure that that title, Harrington.”

Steve guffawed. He glanced at Nancy, giving her a subtle wink, and handed her his cigarette, which she took while trying to hold back her laughter. “Well that sounded like a challenge to me.”

Before Jonathan could snark back, Steve jumped up. He ran towards the shorter boy and crashed into him, knocking him onto his back. Jonathan’s half-full can of beer spilled over the both of them, completely drenching their shirts, but they were both too busy laughing and wrestling to care.

Nancy sat up, smiling contentedly as she watched them roll around on the grass. They looked ridiculous, and perhaps a bit pathetic, but their laughs and shouts echoed in her head, making her feel 18 again, instead of 23. She raised Steve’s cigarette to her mouth, taking a small inhale, and the smoke filling her lungs only brought with it more nostalgia. This was the way it was supposed to be-- the three of them, together, alone. Them against the world.

Steve and Jonathan finally stopped fighting after a long five minutes. Amazingly Steve ended up on top of Jonathan, leaning over him and grinning triumphantly. “Nice try, Jonny, but I think I won. I picked up some moves from college.”

Jonathan just laughed from beneath him, clearly out of breath, and shook his head in fond amusement. For a moment, they all breathed together and smiled together and _felt_ together. For a moment, the world was still.

And then Jonathan reached up with the hand that Steve didn’t have pinned down, curled a hand behind Steve’s neck, and crashed their lips together.

This was it. This was the line that none of them had dared to cross five years ago. The dread of what would come after had always kept them tiptoeing along it obediently, until now. With that, Jonathan had thrown them over the edge into dark uncharted territory.

Nancy could only watch, lips parted in surprise. Steve’s half-smoked cigarette still dangled in between her fingers, and she barely kept from dropping it onto her lap.

It looked like the breath had been punched out of Steve and he stayed frozen against the other boy. Jonathan pulled back, smile wiped from his face. He glanced around, looking ready to scramble out from under Steve, but Steve grabbed his shirt.

“Jon,” he blurted out. His voice sounded strangled and odd, like the name had been punched out of him.

Jonathan froze, and the two boys stared at each other with identical expressions of shock and caution. Then Jonathan looked over at Nancy slowly, a look of pure fear on his face. 

Nancy met his eyes. Refusing to overthink this, she just nodded, a crease forming between her eyebrows. Jonathan didn’t look away from her, and finally he gave a small hesitant smile. Nancy felt a smile break out over her own face, and something like relief flooded through her veins. 

Jonathan looked back up at Steve, who still looked shell shocked. Jonathan whispered something to him, too quietly for Nancy to hear, but after a second Steve nodded minutely.

He made no protest when Jonathan kissed him again, and after a second, he melted into it, kissing back enthusiastically. Even from where she sat, Nancy could see the way they were both smiling into the kiss. She laughed breathlessly when Jonathan flipped Steve over, pressing him into the ground.

“I think I win,” Jonathan said, raising his eyebrows at Steve, but his humor was spoiled by the large grin on his face.

Steve blinked up at him for a second before laughing, shoving at his shoulder. “Oh fuck you Byers,” he shot back happily, but kissed Jonathan again for good measure.

Nancy could do nothing but watch them. Her heart was beating rapidly, but she felt somehow lighter. She could feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins as she watched them. Her mouth was dry, and she wanted to run over to them, jump in the middle of it all, but she could barely move a muscle.

“Fuck,” Steve let out with a laugh as Jonathan broke away from his lips to kiss down Steve’s neck. “Damn, Byers, do you have any idea… how fucking hot that is…”

Jonathan chuckled against his skin, and Steve's head tilted to the side, his dark eyes meeting Nancy’s through the haze of the night. She felt her heart stop at the look. Jonathan seemed to sense a change in the air seeing as he stopped and pulled back gently, his own gaze flickering to his girlfriend as well.

It was like she was staring at everything she’d ever wanted, and they were staring back like they wanted her just as much.  
She didn't remember getting to her feet or tossing the cigarette aside, but she did remember how it felt to kneel back down in front of the two boys, close enough to feel their warmth.

“Is this… are you sure?” Steve asked softly through quick breaths as looked at her. His lips were red and mesmerizing and it took a second for her brain to catch up to his words. Her eyes flickered to Jonathan, who was staring at the both of them with parted lips.

She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t the slightest bit sure about what they were doing. But she’d never wanted something so badly in her life, and so she couldn’t stop the small nod of affirmation she gave him.

Steve’s hand slipped around the back of her neck, pulling their lips together, and Nancy melted against him. His shirt was still soaked in beer, and the grass was itchy against her legs, but she’d never felt more relaxed. She felt like a teenager again, kissing Steve Harrington in the dark when nobody was looking, but this time someone was looking. Jonathan was sitting right behind Steve, breathing heavily as he watched them, and that made it a million times better.

She kissed him back with something close to desperation, grabbing his collar as she practically crawled into his lap. It was different than she remembered-- he kissed slower and more thoughtfully than he had in high school, like he was running a marathon instead of a sprint-- but there was still the same teasing back-and-forth that she’d gotten so used to.

They broke apart, leaning their foreheads together, and Nancy tried desperately to catch her breath. She could hear them all three breathing together, and it stunned her to think about.

Steve leaned forward again but she leaned away, finding the words.

“Wait, Steve,” she panted. He frowned at her, eyes suddenly full of doubt and fear, and Jonathan furrowed his own eyebrows, and suddenly Nancy was struggling to remember why she had stopped this.

“Can we… inside?” That was as much as she could manage to string together, but it got the job done.

Steve grinned at her, pulling her up as he got to his feet. Jonathan scrambled up as well, taking Nancy’s hand in his own, while Steve was still holding on to her other arm. They walked to the back door of Steve house, pulling at each other and swaying together, though Nancy didn’t get the feeling any of that was from the alcohol.

This was the way it was supposed to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa something finally happened in this fic, can you believe it??? Sorry it all kinda happens rather fast.
> 
> And because she'll bully me if I don't, shoutout to Emma for telling me to go work on this, and also like unapologetically giving me direct lines and scenes for this chapter lol get you a friend like that. 
> 
> Please comment, or talk to me on [tumblr!](http://www.ghost-grantaire.tumblr.com)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been so frustrating for me to figure out pacing and format, so I'm sorry it took so long! The end is in sight though!

Nancy rubbed tiredly at her eyes before opening them, blinking around at the room. The sun was streaming in through the windows, casting shadows of trees on the off-white walls. They were blank aside from a couple of Coppola movie posters taped up on the wall, and a clock across from the bed. There were more photos too, frames scattered across a desk and a few on the wall, though most of the photos seemed to just be resting in front of the glass like he hadn’t taken the time to put them inside. There was a bookshelf in the corner, but from what she could see, it was mainly out of shape paperbacks of the American classics they’d read in high school, some books about baseball players and presidents, and couple of trashy airport novels. It was very… Steve.

She turned over in bed, letting out a soft sigh when she saw Steve beside her, Jonathan curled around him almost lovingly. They looked perfect, and she wondered if this is what would’ve happened if her and Jonathan hadn’t run to the east coast. This was where they’d been heading, at the very least.

Pushing the regrets out of her mind, she propped herself up in bed, looking around the room for her clothes.

“You getting up?” Steve’s rough morning voice startled her, and she looked down to see him blinking groggily.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” She spoke quietly, burying back in the bed to get close to him. He wrapped his arm around her lower back and pulled her closer immediately, like it was a reflex.

“Nah,” he replied, breaking off into a yawn. “My internal clock did. This is when I go to work usually.”

He reached over her for something on the bedside table and she blinked when he slipped a pair of glasses onto his face.

“You wear glasses?” She asked, dumbfounded. 

He blinked, his mind clearly working a bit slowly this early in the morning. “Yeah, for a couple years now,” he said with a small laugh, still keeping his voice low. “They’re just for around the house, though. I wear contacts the rest of the time.”

“Oh,” she responded dumbly. Something about it seemed completely ridiculous. It was such a small deal, but it seemed like something she should know. 

“Are they too nerdy?” he asked, a small smirk on his lips.

“No,” she responded immediately, looking at the way the circular frames sat on his face. She reached out and brushed a piece of hair out of his face. “No, you look good. Older.”

His smirk softened into a smile, and she smiled back.

“Nancy Wheeler,” he mused quietly, looking at her face like he was trying to memorize it. There was a soft wistfulness in his eyes, and she wished she couldn’t see it. It hurt to look at.

“Steve Harrington,” she whispered back, trying to keep things light.

“You know how beautiful you are?” He asked, a smile playing on his lips. “Byers better be telling you that at least once a day. He’s an idiot if he isn’t.”

“Shut up.” Nancy laughed softly, pressing a kiss to his lips before she could stop herself. She threaded her hand through his hair before letting it curl around the back of his neck. Steve sighed into the kiss, completely relaxing against her.

They leant their foreheads against each other once they broke apart. “When do you have to go?” He asked breathlessly.

“Soon,” she replied, feeling very small.

“Can you stay for breakfast?” 

She probably shouldn’t-- it was her last day in Hawkins and she had to pack and spend time with her family… but Steve’s voice was hopeful, and she couldn’t say no to that face, so she just nodded.

Steve cast a look over his shoulder to where Jonathan was still sleeping soundly, an occasional snore slipping out.

“He’ll get up soon enough,” Nancy answered the unasked question. “He always sleeps longer than me after he’s been drinking.”

Steve looked back at her, smiling. He rolled on top of her, kissing her soundly once more. “I’ll make breakfast,” he told her, climbing out of the bed.

Nancy laid back in bed as she watched him move around and collect some clothes. He grinned when he saw her staring, but she just smiled and continued on without shame.

Despite her smile, however, there was a sinking in Nancy’s chest, a sense of familiar unease that began to creep into her thoughts. In a week, Nancy and Jonathan would be in California, and Steve would still be here.

***

Nancy decided to take a shower before breakfast, not wanting to go back to her parents’ house looking like such a mess. She may not be able to stop her mother from speculating wildly, but she didn’t have to make it so easy.

She let the water heat up a bit too much, but the warmth made it easier for her to breathe. Her mind kept running through the night before, and her breath would catch in the middle of washing her hair as she’d remember something a bit too vividly.

It had been… _fun_. She didn’t know how else to say it. In 1985, she’d never allowed herself to really think about the three of them together. But sometimes, if she was a bit too tired or a bit too drunk, she’d find herself imagining the scene and how it would go down. She'd always pictured it as emotional, something important, the cliche _Big Deal_ in a romantic movie.

But honestly, it hadn’t been anything like that. It was the three of them, just like they always were. Jonathan made snarky comments, Steve had cracked too many bad jokes, and Nancy rolled her eyes through the whole thing. And it had been perfect.  
She smiled at the memory as she stepped out of the shower and dried herself off in front of the mirror. After pulling on her clothes from the night before, she made her way to the kitchen, stopping in the hallway to watch the scene from a distance.

Jonathan had gotten up already and was currently sitting on the counter, laughing as he watched Steve dance around the kitchen and sing along to the Billy Joel song that way playing loudly from the stereo. He was wearing a Jefferson Airplane T-shirt that looked like it belonged to Steve and he looked more relaxed than Nancy had seen him in a long time, and it made her heart pound anxiously. Steve had replaced his glasses with contacts already, and his hair wasn’t as much of a mess as it had been that morning. 

Jonathan spotted her after a second and waved her over. For a second she felt nervous-- they hadn't talked about what he happened last night, and she didn't know how he felt about any of it. But then he smiled at her and the fear was buried for a while.

“Hey,” she greeted him, and he mumbled it back as he bent down to kiss her.

“You smell nice,” he commented with a crooked smile as he pulled back.

Nancy rolled her eyes, trying to hold back her blush. She smelled like Steve, since she had used his shampoo and conditioner, but she agreed. It did smell nice.

She reached for the coffee in his hands, but he pulled it back protectively, glaring at her. Nancy stuck her tongue at him and turned around, just in time to see Steve handing her a mug of her own.

“Good morning.” Steve grinned. “Cream, no sugar.”

She took the mug he handed her and took a sip, unable to hold back the satisfied hum that escaped her at the taste. “This is the most amazing coffee in the world.”

“That’s what I said,” Jonathan agreed earnestly, and Steve just laughed.

“You guys have low standards. You’ve been living off instant coffee, which is a horror and a half,” he quipped back, and Nancy didn’t care enough to disagree, just taking another long sip of coffee.

She handed Jonathan her coffee so she could jump up to sit beside him, kicking him lightly when he took a sip of it.

They sat there happily, watching Steve make breakfast. He didn’t seem to mind the attention-- in fact, he looked like he was thriving under two pairs of eyes, constantly pausing and grinning over at them. Nancy rested her head against Jonathan’s shoulder, smiling when he slipped an arm around her waist.

She hadn’t felt this content in a long time.

“Hey Jon, can you work on the eggs for a bit? I’m gonna make more coffee,” Steve asked, already handing over the spatula, and Jonathan hopped off the counter to keep an eye on breakfast.

“Steve, can we please listen to anything else?” Jonatha piped up as Tell Her About It began to play.

“We can stop listening to Billy Joel when he stops sounding this damn good,” Steve shot back decisively. “What, do you want to play The Smiths?”

Steve’s eyebrows were raised in challenge, and Nancy giggled as Jonathan huffed under his breath. Nancy had never cared for The Smiths, but that was nothing compared to the pure loathing that Steve held for them.

“Steve, they’re just deep--” Jonathan started, but Nancy kicked his hip playfully from where she sat.

“I liked it better when you two were kissing.” Both Steve and Jonathan looked at her, shocked before a sly smirk slid over Steve’s lips.

“Well, never let it be said that Steve Harrington disappointed a lady.” Steve set down the mug he was holding and walked over to the stove, hugging Jonathan from behind and kissing at his neck. Jonathan kept pushing at the eggs, but Nancy spotted his smile easily.

“You’re gonna make me overcook these eggs,” Jonathan protested as Steve distracted him further.

“Then we’ll make more,” Steve replied, finally getting Jonathan to turn around and kiss him for real.

It was strange, in a way, watching them kiss, even now. She’d seen them do plenty more than that the night before, but there was still something so striking about the both of them together. She’d tried to picture it constantly when she was younger, but those imaginations didn’t compare. She knew what it was like to kiss both of them individually, but to watch them with each other was still foreign. They kissed like they talked, pushing and pulling and fighting for control before eventually letting each other win and agreeing to go with the flow.

Steve’s hand slipped inside Jonathan’s shirt (where Steve knew he was ticklish) and Jonathan had to break away to let out that surprised giggle that never failed to make Nancy grin. Steve laughed at the sound and moved his hand and then they were kissing again.

Nancy took another sip of coffee before hopping off the counter and snatching the spatula out of Jonathan’s hand, nudging them out of the way so the eggs didn’t overcook. The boys didn’t break apart, and she was grateful for that. Last night, her and Steve had slipped back easily into what they had been, simply remembering and relearning, but Jonathan and Steve were making up on lost time. They had to learn each other from scratch, and Nancy really didn’t want to get in the way of that.

The eggs were done within five minutes, so she made up three plates of food and set the table while Steve pressed Jonathan against the counter.

“Alright lovebirds, breakfast is ready,” she interrupted after she was done with everything. 

It took a bit of effort for Steve and Jonathan to break apart long enough to make their way to the table, but eventually they took their seats, Nancy at the head of the table and her boys on either side of her. 

Any secret lingering doubts that Nancy might have had about the previous night were completely dispelled by breakfast. It wasn’t the perfect romantic morning after-- it was better than that. They felt like a family, arguing and joking and picking food off of each other’s plates. They fell into comfortable conversation, cracking jokes about music and the headlines in the paper, laughing about the Sunday comics together like kids.

“Man I wonder if my mom’s freaking out that I didn’t come home last night,” Nancy mused at one point, pulling her feet up on the chair. It wasn’t like her to curl up on chairs while eating, but something about that morning had her feeling like a little kid again. She rested her coffee cup on her knees, taking deep breaths to inhale the scent.

“She knows you’re with us, right?” Steve asked, though it took her a second to understand through all the food in his mouth. Jonathan made a face at him, muttering gross under his breath, and Steve just gave him a wide grin.

Nancy just laughed. “Is that really supposed to make her feel better? You’re not exactly a great influence.”

“Yeah but she loves me,” Steve threw back, and Nancy couldn’t argue with that. He continued as he reached for the butter. “Just tell her you were drunk and couldn't drive home. It's not really a lie.”

Nancy narrowed her eyes at him, though she was still smiling. “I wasn't drunk.”

“Yeah you kinda were, Nancy,” Steve argued with a grin. Nancy frowned, feeling a bit off about that wording.

She wanted to press, make sure Steve knew she wasn't drunk, that she'd understood everything she'd gotten herself into last night and that it hadn’t been some drunken high school mistake, but Steve was already looking past her to Jonathan.

“You look good in that shirt, Jon,” Steve said, wagging his eyebrows suggestively. “You better not steal it.”

Jonathan let out a disbelieving laugh. “Says the guy who’s senior year closet consisted almost exclusively of other people’s clothes.”

Nancy gave a small smile at that, unable to keep the happiness off her face. “Yeah, I never did get that one sweater of mine back.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Steve replied in a sing-song voice. Jonathan smirked at him.

“Really?” He asked, eyes sliding to Nancy, who tilted her head at him. He looked back at Steve. “So that’s not what I saw hanging up when I was looking through your closet?”

Steve paused before shrugging. “I doubt it, I haven’t seen that thing in years. Sorry Nance.”

Despite his words, there was a blush peppering his cheeks lightly, and Nancy ducked her head to look back at the coffee, smiling in slight awe. It hadn’t been a special sweater, just something that was oversized on her but fit Steve pretty excellently despite it’s short length, but it had still been hers. 

Her eyes flickered to Jonathan, who gave a small amused smile. Steve must have noticed, since he quickly changed the subject, but the blush didn’t fade from his cheeks for a few minutes.

***

_“And the greatest miracle of all is how I need you, and how you needed me too…”_

They’d finished breakfast almost twenty minutes earlier, still seated at the table deep in conversation, when the song drifted from the speakers. Billy Joel’s voice overtook the conversation, and Nancy could pinpoint the exact moment they all tuned into the music a bit too closely. _“...Maybe this won’t last very long, but you feel so right, and I could be wrong…”_

“So what are you guys doing today?” Steve asked abruptly, his voice a bit too loud to be casual. She knew that he already knew their plans, but she was grateful for the question.

“Packing mainly. Nancy’s going out with her mom for a bit.” Jonathan answered, not looking up from his plate, even though it was completely clean. “Then we’re having dinner tonight with the families.”

Steve nodded absently, not meeting Nancy’s eyes even though she was staring straight at him. “You should come to dinner!” She exclaimed in a rush, almost desperate.

Jonathan looked up and nodded quickly. “Yeah, of course! It’ll just be the families, you’ll know everyone.”

He looked so hopeful. Nancy wondered if she should be jealous about the desperation Jonathan felt towards getting Steve to come to dinner, but all she could think about was how she shared that desperation.

Steve smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Thanks, but I don’t think I should crash your family dinner. Honorary son or not,” he ended with a small laugh, but his smile quickly faded after a second.

Nancy nodded, suddenly feeling very foolish, and Jonathan went back to staring at his plate. The song changed on the stereo to an upbeat tune she didn’t recognize, but they stayed silent, each one lost in their own thoughts.

Steve cleared the plates after they’d all finished eating, and Jonathan muttered something about getting his clothes out of the dryer before disappearing into the laundry room. Nancy helped Steve load the dishwasher in silence. Everything she wanted to say seemed embarrassingly inadequate.

“Tomorrow, maybe Jonathan and I could stop by, you know? To say goodbye?” Nancy asked quietly after a second. She tried not to trip over the words, even though they were painful.

Steve didn’t respond for a moment, continuing to gather up the mugs with his back to her. For a moment, she was scared he was angry, but he when he turned around he was smiling cheerfully. “How about I swing by instead? One less thing for you to worry about.”

Nancy returned his smile and nodded, though she didn’t feel any more secure with the exchange. 

She wanted to push, to drag Jonathan into the kitchen and force them to just talk but she was to terrified to say anything.

“Steve--” she started, but was stopped by the sudden shrill ring of the landline in the living room.

“Hold that thought, Nancy,” he started, already walking away and leaving her at the sink. Nancy sighed, slightly relieved by the distraction. She turned back to the dishes, pausing when she heard Steve pick up the phone.

“Hello? Oh, hey Karen.” Nancy glanced over just as Steve looked up at her. “Yeah, she’s over here. We had a late night, thought it’d be better for them to just crash here.”

Nancy lowered her eyes again at the lie. She was disappointed at the response, though she internally reprimanded herself at the feeling. What did she want him to say, _oh hey Karen, your daughter and her boyfriend spent the night in my bed and we did unspeakable things to each other that would probably turn you and the rest of this town against us._

“Sure, I’ll let her know,” Steve spoke up again, jolting Nancy out of her thoughts. He threw Nancy an odd grin, and she realized she’d been glaring at the plate in her hands. “Yeah. Yeah, it was no problem, of course. Okay. Bye Karen!”

He hung up the phone and Nancy looked at him expectantly. He gave her a crooked smile.

“She said that they were gonna go out to the park soon with Holly, and then go grocery shopping.”

“Oh, right,” Nancy said, setting the dish aside and wiping her hands off on her jeans as she looked at the time on the clock. It was almost noon. She looked back at Steve, at a loss for words.

“What’s going on?” Jonathan asked as he came back into the kitchen, now dressed in his clothes from yesterday.

“Mom and Holly are leaving for the park soon,” Nancy said. Jonathan nodded slowly.

“Do you need to get home?” He asked her unsurely.

She didn’t meet Steve’s eyes as she responded, keeping her focus clearly on Jonathan. “Yeah, I… I probably should.”

Jonathan nodded again, eyes flickering around the room. “Well I can drive you and come back and finish cleaning--”

“Don’t even worry about it,” Steve cut in. He leaned against the counter, shrugging nonchalantly. Nancy wondered how he always managed to look so chill. Did he even care that they were leaving? Was he just much better at pretending? “We already did most of the dishes, It’ll only take me a few minutes to finish the rest. You don’t have come back.”

Jonathan frowned. “But the backyard and everything--”

“Don’t worry about it, Byers,” Steve repeated firmly. “Seriously. It’s your last day in town, go spend it with your family.”

The two men stared at each other, and Nancy felt like something passed between them before Jonathan nodded in resignation. “Alright, if you’re sure.”

Steve smiled and pulled Jonathan into a light embrace without a word. Nancy watched the way Jonathan’s eyes closed as he hugged back, a crease on his forehead like he was scared to pull away, and Nancy felt concern tug at her heart. 

What have we gotten ourselves into? She thought, a sinking feeling in her chest. There was no easy ending to this, and she knew it all too well.

Steve and Jonathan pulled apart, both mumbling goodbyes. Steve turned to her, hugging her with a smile. She hugged him tightly, unable to keep her arms from pulling him close. An irrational desire to just never pull away came over her, and she knew this was how Jonathan had felt second’s earlier.

She half expected him to lean in, recognizing the affectionate glint in his eyes that always preceded a kiss, but he pulled back instead. He was smiling, but it looked plastered on and two-dimensional, and Nancy got that terrible sinking feeling again that she’d done something Wrong.

 _Let’s talk about it!_ Some part of her mind shouted angrily. _Talk about all the shit you never talked about five years ago!_

“I--” Nancy started, wanting to finish the thought more than anything. Two more words to finish a thought that she knew without a shadow of a doubt was the truth, but something was holding her back. She gave a small smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Steve blinked, looking confused for a moment before nodding. “Yeah. See you.”

“Bye Steve,” Jonathan said again, giving a small smile. Steve smiled and nodded at him, grabbing the door for them.

Steve stayed in the doorway as they walked out, but when she looked back after getting into the car, the door was closed.

***

Nancy stared down at the clothes folded in her suitcase. She was almost done; packing had never been difficult for her. It was easy for her to be efficient and straightforward in tasks like that, and she liked being proactive rather than waiting until the next day. It was getting late and she was exhausted from the day on the town she’d had with her mother and sister, not to mention the joint Byers-Wheeler dinner that had never seemed to end. While all of it had been incredibly pleasant and fun, it still wore her down to the bone. But while she wanted to just sleep, she refused to go to bed before finishing packing.

She ran her hands over a black jacket, crumbled in a heap on her bed, creased and unfolded. It was the only thing left out of her suitcase, and she knew it would take approximately five seconds to fold the jacket and tuck it into the suitcase. It was the last piece, the last thing on her to-do list, but she couldn’t get her hands to move.

If she packed it now, she'd have nothing left to worry about. She'd be all ready to leave tomorrow morning. She just couldn't help that that thought made her sick to her stomach. Because she _wasn't_ ready to leave. Not even close.

“Hey Nancy?”

She looked up, surprised to see the head of blonde hair lingering in the hall outside her door. Holly swayed on the balls of her feet, looking anxious and nervous, a frown twisting at her lips. Nancy was surprised Holly wasn’t already asleep after the long day they’d had.

“What’s up, Hols?” Nancy asked, giving a smile that she hoped came across as comforting. She moved the photo to the side, not wanting to be distracted from her sister.

Holly walked into the room slowly. She paused before speaking up again. “Do you have to go to California?”

Nancy felt the air leave her chest in one quick exhale and she closed her eyes for a moment before looking back at her sister. Holly looked hopeful now, her eyes wide and searching, and Nancy didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to go at all.

“Yeah,” she replied finally. She tried to ignore the way her sister’s face fell immediately. She sat up straighter, looking at Holly sincerely. “It’s just, you know, this is something I have to do. But it’s not like you’ll never see me, or anything. I’ll call, and write letters, and we can come visit for all the holidays.”

Holly stared at the carpet, her blue eyes shining sadly. “You didn’t come home last Christmas. You said you’d come home and you didn’t.”

“I know, but that was… it was really difficult, you know, I was busy, and so was Jonathan, and the flights were expensive.” Nancy tried her best to explain, but everything felt like excuses. She suddenly couldn’t remember why she hadn’t made it home for Christmas-- sure all of that stuff was true, but she should’ve been there. She should’ve found a way.

She felt tears of desperation prickle at her eyes and she wiped at them quickly, not wanting to break down in front of her baby sister.

“I didn’t mean to make you sad,” Holly mumbled, sounding guilty. Nancy shook her head, reaching out for her sister. Holly got the message, crawling onto the bed and sitting in Nancy’s lap, letting Nancy wrap her arms around her and rest her chin on her sister’s head.

“You didn’t make me sad. I’m just sad that I’m leaving, that’s all,” she assured Holly.

Holly paused. “But you’re still going, even though you’re sad?”

“Yeah,” Nancy said with a sigh. “Sometimes you have to make choices that make you sad either way. Sometimes choices are just really really hard to make.”

Holly didn’t respond for a moment. After a second she twisted uncomfortably in her sister’s grip, looking up to stare at Nancy.

“Is this one of things I’ll understand when I’m older?” She asked, her voice genuine and inquisitive, and Nancy couldn’t help but l  
laugh.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she replied. Holly nodded, accepting that and relaxed back into her sister’s hug.

“Can you braid my hair?” Holly asked. “I want to have curly hair tomorrow.”

Nancy smiled affectionately, running her hands through Holly’s hair before parting it into sections. “Sure thing, sis.”

Fifteen minutes later, Holly was fast asleep in her bed, hair tucked into two long braids. After kissing her parents goodnight, Nancy made her way back to her room.

Her eyes immediately landed on the jacket which had caused her such trouble earlier. She stared at it for a long moment before taking a breath and grabbing it. She folded it in half, tucking the sleeves in before folding it once more and laid it carefully on top of the rest of her shirts. Without pausing, she closed the suitcase and zipped it close.

She thought back a few days earlier to a conversation with Steve. He’d been recounting everything that had gone down after he’d dropped out of school and moved back to Hawkins. He’d made a off color joke about how that had been the moment he’d finally slipped into his role as the family disappointment. Nancy suddenly wondered if he wasn’t the only one.

There was more than one way to let people down. Maybe this was her way. She was always going to be the person who left when they needed her to stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone was curious, the scene with the trio listening to Billy Joel in Steve's kitchen was the first part of this I ever thought about, and is literally the reason I wrote this entire fic. That's it.
> 
> Sorry the pacing and content is so weird in this chapter. I'm not very happy, but I really really want to finish this fic before season 2 and I need to get my shit together.
> 
> Please leave a review if you have the time! I love reading what people think!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the beginning of the end

The next morning started with a call from Mike, making all of Nancy’s nerves vanish, at least for a while. She could always count on Mike to be her typical annoying yet caring younger brother, no matter how much time passed.

“I can’t believe you’re moving to California,” he said at one point. “It’s gonna be so weird.”

Nancy frowned at that. “I lived in New York. Philadelphia before that. How is this any different?”

“I dunno,” Mike said unhelpfully. “It just always felt temporary before. This is like… this is it.”

“It’s not like you’ll never see me,” Nancy said. She rolled her eyes, trying to get the words to sound sarcastic, though there was a definite shakiness underneath. “You already have plans to visit in July.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mike dismissed. “Still weird.”

Nancy didn’t know what to say to that.

“How’s Steve?” Mike asked after a moment. His voice was muffled and Nancy got the feeling he was eating. Nancy frowned, her hand stilling on where it was playing absentmindedly with the cord.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She shot back quickly. For a second, she wondered if he knew something, like he somehow had insight as to what had happened the night before. She quickly shook away the ridiculous thought. Mike and Steve were friends, in some weird sort of way, and it made sense that Mike would ask after him.

She could almost hear the eye roll she got in response. “It’s just a question, Nancy.”

Nancy sighed, looking around the room. “He’s fine. It’s been fun catching up.”

Mike hummed in response, and she thought that was the end of it until—“You know, Holly thinks you’re in love with him.”

“Jesus, Mike,” Nancy exclaimed throwing up her hands. Just a question, my ass. “Holly thinks everyone’s in love with Steve.”

“Yeah, well, are you?” he asked innocently enough.

Nancy exhaled sharply, wishing her brother could see the look of disapproval she was sending him. “Mike, you know I’m with Jonathan.”

“Yeah,” he started slowly, “and I also know you were in love with Jonathan when you were with Steve. I don’t see how this is proving your point.”

Nancy felt her face heat up and she tightened her grip on the phone. “You’re an asshole, Mike,” she snapped, though there was no real anger behind her words.

“Still not answering the question,” Mike replied in a sing-songy voice, before coughing. Nancy smirked, getting the feeling he accidentally choked on a bit of food.

“No, and I’m not going to,” Nancy shot back. She grabbed a pen, doodling absentmindedly as she changed the subject. “How’s Purdue? How’s Lucas?”

Mike paused, and Nancy got the feeling he was deciding whether or not to change the subject back. She waited nervously.

“It’s fine,” Mike replied at last, making Nancy exhale in slight relief. “I have no idea what’s going on in my sociology class, but it could be worse.”

Nancy smirked slightly, remembering her own troubles from being a freshman in college, and allowed all thought of Steve Harrington to melt out of her mind.

***

Jonathan arrived in the car shortly after breakfast. He looked shaken up, no doubt from his farewell with his mother, but he didn’t offer any explanation when Nancy sent him a glance. She hadn’t pushed, only kissed him gently before changing the subject.

They packed the car slowly. Both of them kept glancing down the street, neither of them speaking what was on their mind.

“Are you alright, sweetheart?” Nancy’s mother asked after she looked at the street for probably the tenth time. Nancy jumped, not realizing she’d been so obvious.

“I just… Steve mentioned he might stop by, you know, to say goodbye,” Nancy mumbled, trying not to sound so upset. “I just hope nothing happened, that’s all.”

Her mother looked at her, tilting her head, half in confusion and half in pity. “Oh, Nancy, Steve works Monday mornings. He always does. He didn’t tell you?”

Nancy felt her heart sink. She shook her head, hoping she didn’t look as disappointed as she felt.

“I’m sure you could just stop by the cafe. I bet he’d love that,” Karen continued, looking hopeful, and Nancy smiled and nodded, just to keep her mom at ease.

“Yeah, maybe,” Nancy answered, but she knew they wouldn’t. Steve knew he worked Monday mornings, and he’d known when she’d asked him. He’d held back the information for a reason. He didn’t want to say goodbye, and she couldn’t blame him. It was painful, like they were reliving the day in August 1985 when they’d all parted ways, except this time they had more to lose and they knew how it was going to play out. 

When it was time to leave, Nancy could barely hold it together. She wasn’t sure how long she ended up hugging her mother, but it still didn’t feel like long enough. When she pulled back, Karen had tears in her eyes, and Nancy felt moments from breaking into sobs. She’d never been good at goodbyes.

She hugged her dad tightly, though it didn’t come close to her mother’s in duration or warmth. Holly was probably the hardest to say goodbye to, jumping into her arms desperately.

“Promise you’ll come home for Christmas this year?” Holly asked quietly into Nancy’s ear as she held her baby sister. “For real this time?”

“Yeah,” Nancy replied. “For real this time. I promise.”

“Good,” Holly said firmly. She pulled back to smile at Nancy. “Don’t worry about Steve. I’ll take care of him.”

Nancy felt like the breath had been kicked out of her but she nodded. “I know you will.”

“So, you know where you’re headed, right?” Ted asked after Nancy had set Holly back down. Nancy had traded a glance with Jonathan, who was pulling back from his own hug with Karen.

“Yeah,” she said, as confidently as she could manage. “We’ll be fine.”

Jonathan nodded, something subtly sad in his eyes. It made Nancy’s heart hurt, and she forced herself to look away. She couldn’t help but feel like they were making a mistake.

“Alright then,” Karen said, voice slightly shaky. “Have a good trip.”

Nancy nodded, and that was it.

“I’ll drive,” Jonathan said quietly, taking the keys from her.

She didn’t resist, taking a deep breath before walking to the passenger’s side and climbing in. She didn’t let herself look back at her family as they pulled out and started the long drive.

They drove down the narrow streets slowly, watching for kids and pets like you tended to do in a small town. It wasn’t long before the houses became more spread out, giving way to the outskirts of the town. Nancy watched Jonathan send a forlorn glance to his old house, and the knot in her chest tightened.

When they passed the sign announcing that they’d left Hawkins, Nancy got a tight feeling in her chest, the kind of uneasiness that came with leaving home and knowing you wouldn’t be home for a long time. She couldn’t be sure when Hawkins had become home again, but she felt cruel leaving it.

She tried to distract herself by looking over at Jonathan, who was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. He caught her stare, but before she could say something, he turned on the radio as a distraction.

“ _...and to celebrate the ten year anniversary of his album Glass Houses, here’s Billy Joel!_ ” The voice on the radio exclaimed before a familiar song faded in. She recognized it immediately-- they’d listened to it the previous morning, and she remembered how much she’d enjoyed it.

Both her and Jonathan stared at the stereo for five long seconds, and Nancy wondered if Jonathan felt as nauseous as she did.

_“Got a call from an old friend, we used to be real close…”_

Nancy closed her eyes and listened to the lyrics, trying to steady her breathing which had become much too fast.

Nancy knew what it felt like to lose a friend-- she’d learned that feeling when she was sixteen years old. And thought nothing could ever compare to that feeling, this felt almost just as terrible, though in a different way.

She hadn’t gotten a choice with Barb-- she’d been taken without permission or consent. But this? This was a choice. It would be so easy to change this, all they had to do was turn around.

Nancy squeezed her eyes closed tighter. She set her thoughts on California. She thought about getting a new start in a new place with the love of her life. (One of the loves of her life).

_All they had to do was turn around._

This is what she’d always wanted. It was still what she wanted. What was she supposed to do, stay in Hawkins? Live out her life like every other suburban mother in that neighborhood? How would it even work, with Jonathan and Steve? It wouldn’t, that was the answer. None of it would work.

_All they had to do._

Love was a matter of circumstance. Love wasn’t conditionless-- there were always conditions and choices that got in the way of things. Sometimes people just missed each other. They’d get over it. Nancy and Jonathan would live a happy life in California, Steve would meet some charming girl in Hawkins, or maybe even manage to get out of that town and end up somewhere better, and they’d move on. The only thing was… they didn’t have to.

_All they had._

He was all they had. And they were driving away.

“Turn around.” Nancy sat up straighter in her seat, determined. Jonathan let off the gas and looked at her, a questioning but hopeful look in his eyes.

“Turn around,” she repeated, looking at him earnestly. “We’re not making this mistake again.”

The pause that followed her words felt like lead in the air. Jonathan was still driving, and it was a good thing there wasn’t another car on that stretch of road, since he wasn’t paying the least bit of attention. Nancy didn’t care-- she just kept looking at him, waiting for a reaction. 

Jonathan grinned slowly and Nancy nodded again. Turning back to the road, Jonathan wasted no time in making a wide U-turn, skidding slightly against the road. As they drove back to the town, a good 10 mph over the speed limit, both of them were grinning widely, Billy Joel playing loudly over the stereo. Nancy let out a loud laugh and Jonathan echoed her.

The song was on its last verse when they pulled into the parking lot. Jonathan barely turned off the car before they both jumped out, practically running towards the front door of the restaurant.

It was lunchtime, so most of the booths were filled with couples and families. Nancy scoured desperately for a familiar head of hair, but came up short.

In a moment of fear, she wondered if they’d missed him yet again, if he wasn’t even there, if this wasn’t meant to be.

“Steve!” Jonathan suddenly called out, and Nancy quickly followed his gaze just in time to see Steve poke his head out from the kitchen.

When he spotted them, he dropped the dishtowel he’d been drying his hands with, a bewildered expression overtaking his face. He walked out of the kitchen slowly, stopping a few yards away, eyes flickering between the two of them. There were people staring at the three of them, but Nancy had never cared less in her life.

Nancy took a deep breath. _People don’t do a lot of things when they’re scared_ , Steve had said. She was ready to prove him wrong.

“How do you feel about California?”

A pause. A woman sneezed beside them. Jonathan slipped his hand into hers. The bell on the counter rang as an order was set out.

Steve grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this ending probably isn't what many people were expecting. I have reasons for making it so simple, and I hope it isn't a complete disappointment. I've decided I will in fact follow it up with an epilogue, so this isn't the end-end, but it's close. Thanks for sticking with me for this long <3


	8. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is-- the final piece. Thank you so much for all the support!! Can't wait for season 2 to rip my ot3 apart.

The sun rose early, light streaming in through the windows. It was nearing the longest day of the years, and it felt like it. Nancy had woken up easily from the light, and groaned in annoyance as she tried to get away from it. She turned over, hoping to find Jonathan beside her, but the bed was empty.

She gave up soon after that. She hated empty beds, and there was no point in trying to get more sleep.

Jonathan was sitting at the table when she came out the bedroom after getting dressed. He looked up, slightly guilty as he said good morning.

“You left me,” she complained, taking a seat beside him and grabbing his coffee to take a sip. He didn’t protest, most likely because it was pretty shitty coffee. She grimaced at the taste and set it back down quickly.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I can’t sleep through the sunlight.”

Nancy shook her head, leaning against him tiredly. He wrapped an around her waist like it was second nature. “I hate waking up alone. That bed is too big for one person.”

“It’s too big for two people too,” Jonathan pointed out.

There was a moment of silence, and Nancy sighed, letting her hair fall into her face. “Yeah it is,” she agreed softly. She paused, biting her lip. “Is it stupid to miss him?”

She felt Jonathan exhale. “No,” he replied. _I miss him too_ , he didn’t add.

There was another long pause, and Nancy could tell their thoughts were in the same place. A long conversation, a compromise, and another car ride leaving someone in the dust. It’d been nearly three months, and it felt simultaneously like it had been only hours ago, and an entire lifetime.

“I’ll make breakfast,” Jonathan offered after a second. Nancy smiled and pulled away from him so he could get up. “Eggs okay?”

Nancy smirked, wrapping her hands around his abandoned coffee for the comfort of it more than anything. “Eggs are always okay. So okay that we eat them every single morning without fail.”

Jonathan pinked, throwing her an unimpressed look. “I never claimed to be a chef. You could always learn to cook, you know.”

Nancy shrugged, a smile playing at her lips. “Nah, I can handle another day of eggs.”

The doorbell rang out unexpectedly, and Jonathan glanced at her from the fridge. She sighed and put the coffee down. “I’ll get it.”

As she made her way to the door, there was a second ring of the doorbell, making her groan. “Yeah, I’m coming!” She shouted, yanking open the door at last and looking out.

“I have a delivery for a Miss Nancy Wheeler--”

“Steve!” Nancy leaped at him, wrapping her arms around him tightly. Steve laughed, giving up the act, and hugged her back tightly. She lifted her legs off the ground, holding onto him with all her strength.

“I thought-- you weren’t supposed to get here until tomorrow!” She exclaimed, pulling back to look at him. He looked tired, his shoulders slumped slightly, and he was sweating through his T-shirt, probably due to the fact that he’d decided to wear jeans. Nonetheless, he looked happy. He pushed his sunglasses up on the top of his head, grinning down at her.

“I couldn’t wait. I drove through the night,” he admitted. He laughed gently. “I’m running off of adrenaline and coffee right now.”

“Come inside,” she directed, pulling him into the hallway and shutting the door behind him. She didn’t let go of his hands. She’d missed him so much. She grinned up at him before throwing a look back into the hallway. “Jonathan! Get your ass over here!” 

“Just a minute!” He called back, and she could hear the grin in his voice.

Steve scoffed. “Just a minute, he says,” he spoke loudly so Jonathan could hear. “I quit my job, give up my own house, and drive across the whole damn country for him, and he can’t be bothered to greet me at the door.”

Jonathan chose that moment to appear in the hallway, and they grinned widely at each other. It was rare Jonathan let those smiles take over his face, but he didn’t seem to care about anything right then. Nancy didn’t blame him.

They didn’t say anything as Jonathan embraced Steve tightly, his hands wandering up to thread through Steve’s hair. 

“Hey Johnny,” Steve said when they pulled apart, grinning happily at him. Jonathan rolled his eyes at the name, but never stopped smiling. “God I missed you.”

“We missed you too,” Jonathan said, eyes flickering to Nancy. “Phone calls weren’t enough.”

“At least you guys had each other,” Steve pointed out, though he didn’t seem the least bit jealous or bitter. “I was suffering by myself in Hawkins.”

“You’re the one who wanted to stay,” Nancy argued with raised eyebrows. Steve took the opportunity to catch her hand and pull her close.

He frowned at her thoughtfully. “I had to stay through the end of Holly’s softball season. What would they have done without me?”

And God if that wasn’t the most ridiculous and most charming thing he’d ever said. She couldn’t help but stand on her toes, pressing her lips to his. His hand tightened around hers, and she felt Jonathan sigh happily against her neck.

The three swapped kisses for several minutes, catching up on the feeling of that sort of togetherness she’d missed so much the past couple of months. She hadn’t really expected Steve to drop everything for them in a second-- there was too much to take care of before you could just move across the country, but it had still hurt to drive away from him, even with the knowledge that he was going to join them soon.

Steve finally pulled away just in time for him to break into a loud yawn. “Shit, as much as I wanna keep kissing you, I think I'm about five minutes from passing out in the hallway.”

Nancy grinned, threading their fingers together. “Come on, we’ll give you the short tour,” she assured him. She pulled him down the hallway as Jonathan followed close behind, gesturing to the other rooms. “Living room, kitchen, first bathroom…”

She pushed open the last door, grinning at him over her shoulder as she pulled him inside by his hand. “And bedroom.”

Steve grinned around at their surroundings. When his eyes found the king bed in the middle of the room, his eyes sparkled with delight. He yawned again, and Nancy couldn’t help but mirror the action. “That’s the best thing I’ve seen all day.”

Steve stumbled with a small chuckle as Jonathan shoved him lightly, eyebrows raised. Steve grinned over at him. “You guys are close seconds.”

Jonathan and Nancy chuckled, but stayed silent as Steve’s eyes trailed around the room again, finding the pictures of the three of them on the wall. He paused at the ones that were blurred and out of focus, the ones he’d taken that March evening in his backyard.

Nancy let him observe and crossed to Jonathan, smiling as he wrapped his arms around her in a close embrace. She stayed with her back to his chest as the two of them watched Steve’s eyes flicker over the pictures. After a while he looked back, and he blinked when he saw them together, like he wasn’t sure they would even be there.  
He crossed to them slowly, a smile creeping onto his face. Nancy waited for him, ready for the kiss he pressed to her lips.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Steve whispered against her lips. She pressed closer to him, wanting to be as close to him as possible so she wouldn’t forget he was real.

“Believe it,” Jonathan said, arms still wrapped around Nancy’s waist to look at Steve. His words were firm, but there was a smile in his voice.

“We deserve this,” Nancy said decidedly. Steve smiled strangely at her, his eyes flickering between them. She wondered for a second if he was going to disagree with her, but after a second something changed in his expression and he nodded.

“Yeah,” he agreed quietly. His smile widened. “And I, as someone who just drove for about twenty hours straight, deserve a nap with the most beautiful people in California.”

Nancy laughed, but couldn’t disagree with him. Jonathan pulled away from Nancy and sat down on the mattress.

Steve flopped down besides him, sighing happily as he yawned yet again, his eyes fluttering shut. “I’m never gonna want to leave this bed, am I?”

He didn’t wait for a response and instead grabbed Jonathan by the wrist and yanked him towards the head of the bed, making the younger man laugh in surprise. Steve smiled sleepily at the sound, and Nancy grinned as well. She flipped the lightswitch off, though it did nothing to contain the sunlight streaming through the window. She didn’t mind, though, as long as her bed wasn’t empty.

Steve’s stomach growled in the quiet of the room as they all spread out on the mattress.

“We’ll have lunch when we wake up,” Nancy assured him, curling up against his back.

“And coffee,” Steve mumbled, his words already slurred with sleep. “But not that instant shit. We’re a french press family. Non-negotiable.”  
 _Family_. Nancy was unable to quell the jolt of happiness that the word sent through her. She kissed a freckle on the back of Steve’s neck, looking over at Jonathan.

“That sounds good to me,” she whispered, and Jonathan smiled back at her. She laid her head against the pillow and wrapped her arm around Steve’s waist, smiling when she felt Jonathan thread their fingers together.

This was the way it was supposed to be.


End file.
